Differences and Decisions in Malta
Romanias President Klaus Iohannis attended in Malta the EU – Africa Summit on migration and the informal European Council meeting.
Daniela Budu, 13.11.2015, 14:00
The EU must find partners to solve the migration issue as far away as possible from the Schengen area, said the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk in Malta. At the informal meeting of the European Council, called by Donald Tusk after the EU-Africa summit, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis underlined the need for additional efforts and better cooperation of the member states, towards ensuring a more effective control on the EU’s external borders.
The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker voiced discontent over the pace of refugee relocation within the EU. According to Juncker less than 150 people have been relocated in the past weeks, out of a total of 160,000 that the EU is supposed to transfer from Italy and Greece to other European countries. Junker said, ironically, that “ if we continue at that rate, we will be there by 2101”, adding that the EU must speed up the process.
The extraordinary European Council was marked by disagreements among member states over the way in which the refugee crisis should be handled, but also over the financial aid that should be granted to Turkey. The heads of state analyzed the way in which the agreed measures regarding migration have been implemented so far. Sweden has temporarily introduced border checks to deal with the ongoing inflow of migrants. Slovenia has decided to build a fence on the EU’s external border in Croatia. Previously, Hungary took a similar measure.
According to Donald Tusk, saving the Schengen free movement area, affected by such measures, is a race around the clock. He has explained that the Schengen area depends on the implementation of the measures adopted so far, including the action plan agreed on at the summit in Malta. This plan must be implemented by the end of 2016, and provides, among other things, for facilitating the return to Africa of migrants who do not qualify for being granted asylum. The plan also establishes a pilot project for the setting up of a Nigerian-European investigation team that should track down migrant trafficking networks.
Referring to this issue, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis stressed the need for a strong EU-Africa partnership, with EU and African countries acting together to identify common solutions to fight illegal migration. The EU announced the setting up of a 1.8 billion Euro trust fund for Africa, to which member states are invited to contribute, in order to double the amount. The contributions promised by member countries, however, are far from being enough. Romania will contribute an additional 100,000 Euro.
(Translated by: M. Ignatescu / Edited by: E. Enache)
