BELGIUM: EU leaders ignore calls for action on Europe's migration crisis

Record ID: 348632

  • Title: BELGIUM: EU leaders ignore calls for action on Europe's migration crisis
  • Date: 25th October 2013
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 25, 2013) (REUTERS) POLICE VAN OUTSIDE EUROPEAN COUNCIL BUILDING POLICE CHECKS OUTSIDE EUROPEAN COUNCIL BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 9th November 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4OCQ70J00KZGEMTNZMLI3EHW9
  • Story Text: European Union leaders ignored calls from southern European countries on Friday (October) for emergency action to tackle a wave of illegal migration from Africa despite the deaths of hundreds of people in Mediterranean boat disasters.
    EU leaders meeting in Brussels expressed "deep sadness" at the drownings, which have killed up to 550 migrants this month alone but postponed any new action until December.
    Meanwhile Italian navy and coast guard ships rescued more than 700 migrants between Sicily and North Africa overnight as the immigration crisis showed no signs of abating.
    A more thorough overhaul of the bloc's immigration policies will wait until after next year's European elections when rising anti-immigration sentiment is set to boost far-right parties.
    EU leaders proposed no specific new steps to counter the crisis, beyond asking an EU task force to look at how to make migration policies more effective and to report back in December.
    "We all agree it's urgent to examine what more can be done. And that's why we asked the newly established Taskforce for the Mediterranean led by the European Commission with member states or diplomatic service and agencies. We will ask to come up quickly with concrete operational proposals for a more efficient use of European policies and tools," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy told a news conference.
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more cooperation with countries where illegal migrants come from and with transit countries, and for a more energetic fight against human trafficking.
    "It is very important that we improve cooperation with the countries of origin (of the refugees) if we want to protect refugees, strengthening Frontex also played a very large role in our discussions and attempts to combat the trafficking of refugees, but we all know these are very complex tasks," Merkel said.
    Frontex, which coordinates patrols off the Italian coast, using boats, planes and helicopters lent by EU member states, says it has helped save 16,000 people this year.
    But the European statement on Friday did not mention any increase in resources for the EU's Frontex border control agency, as sought by Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta.
    Letta, among southern European leaders who had called for urgent action from the EU summit, put a brave face on the outcome, saying EU leaders had shown solidarity with countries bearing the brunt of the problem.
    "We reached important agreements, first of all on the raising of the topic at the top level of the European agenda that was for us very important. Applying first of all the big value of solidarity, that is one of the main values of the European Union and we asked for the application of solidarity in this field and we achieved, so I am happy of that," he told reporters, but added that this would not be sufficient unless the EU followed it up with practical steps.
    Southern European governments demanded what they see as a fairer sharing of the burden of dealing with the crisis with northern European states and an increase in EU funding.
    But governments in wealthy northern countries, wary of opinion polls showing a surge in anti-immigration sentiment and rising support for far-right parties that are expected to do well in next May's European Parliament elections, resist increasing their responsibility for handling the problem.
    More than 32,000 migrants from Africa and the Middle East have arrived in Italy and Malta so far this year, according to the United Nations, making a perilous crossing of the Mediterranean in rickety boats. The breakdown of order in Libya and the civil war in Syria have swelled the exodus.
    French President Francois Hollande also underlined the importance of addressing the deeper issues.
    "(We need) to reinforce the capabilities of a certain number of neighbouring countries on the other side of the Mediterranean, and I'm thinking about Libya in particular. It's become an emergency. We need to do everything so that Libya finds its capacities in terms of security and is able to make sure that the refugees who show up are welcomed. But I'm not thinking only of Libya, we also need to deal with the source of the difficulties. I mentioned Eritrea. And as for the question of refugees, we are all thinking of what is happening in Syria -- to help neighbouring countries, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, to welcome these refugees," he said.
    The countries on the frontline of the migration crisis, including Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Spain and Italy, are among the hardest hit by Europe's financial crisis, leaving them with little muscle to deal with mass migration.
    In their defence, northern EU countries point to EU statistics showing that northerners - Germany, Sweden and Britain - granted protection to most asylum-seekers in 2012.
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