Germany rejects Italian proposal to open EU ports to migrants
Ministers refused to back plan to open European ports to vessels, but endorsed an EU proposal to provide support to Rome.Politico
By Jacopo Barigazzi
7 July 2017
“We’ll not back the so-called regionalization of rescue operations,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière told reporters ahead of an informal meeting of EU ministers in Tallinn.
The ministers nixed Italy’s proposal that migrants crossing the Mediterranean disembark from vessels in other European ports, to alleviate some of the pressure on Italian ports.
Rome is pushing to change the mandate of the EU’s Triton operation, launched in November 2014 to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. As part of the operation — which is run by Frontex, the EU’s border agency — 11 vessels take migrants rescued at sea to Italy. According to data from the Italian Senate, Triton is responsible for rescuing about 30 percent of migrants found crossing the Mediterranean.
* “Just opening more ports will not solve the problem by itself” — Stef Blok, Dutch minister for security and justice
Italy, which faced 85,183 arrivals in the first six months of the year according to the International Organization for Migration, now wants to share the burden with other EU coastline states such as France and Spain. But Italian diplomats admit they have little hope this effort will succeed.
Italy made “a mistake” when it called for EU support “in exchange for Rome taking all the migrants,” one diplomat said.
“No. Triton has a very clear, very well defined mission,” European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos said in Tallinn, when asked whether he supported the Italian plan to change the Triton mandate.
He later clarified to reporters that this doesn’t mean that the Commission is against the plan. “More work however is needed within Europe but also with our North African neighbors to share the burden and ensure Italy is not left alone,” he said, and Frontex “will have a discussion with the Italian authorities and other member states involved next week on Triton’s operational plan.”
Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands also rebuffed the Italian proposal. Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido stressed that ports in Spain are already facing “important pressure,” while Belgian Migration Minister Theo Francken said, “I don’t think that we are going to open Belgian ports.”
“Just opening more ports will not solve the problem by itself,” Stef Blok, the Dutch minister for security and justice, said. Blok stressed that the EU should also “discuss the role [of] African ports” in removing some of the burden from Italy.
EU ministers did, however, endorse an action plan put forward by the Commission to provide support to Rome. The plan includes additional funding for Libya, the starting point for the bulk of migrants crossing to Sicily, and a proposal to regulate the activity of NGOs operating in the Mediterranean, some of whom have been accused of carrying out search-and-rescue operations too close to or within Libyan territorial waters.
The action plan also calls on Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to “declare their search and rescue areas and establish a formal maritime rescue and coordination center,” which would also lay the groundwork for these countries to take back migrants.
There is widespread support, from the Netherlands to Hungary, for plans to open migration centers in North Africa. “But if it has not been done so far it is also because Tunisians and Libyans don’t want to,” according to a diplomat involved in migration talks.
Even if Europe can come up with compelling incentives for North African countries to cooperate on migration, “the problem will remain how then we make sure that those entitled for protection will be able to reach Europe,” another diplomat said, given that resettlement programs are based on voluntary pledges by member countries.
Source: http://www.politico.eu/article/germany-rejects-italian-proposal-to-open-eu-ports-to-migrants/
