The Twenty-Eight are meeting in Malta’s capital today for an informal summit partly dedicated to migration, European media widely report. Le Figaro’s Jean-Jacques Mével reports that fear remains that improved weather conditions in the central Mediterranean will lead to a boom in figures in March, as the smuggling business in Libya is prospering and African migration shows no sign of weakening.
The media mostly discuss the EU’s project to strike an agreement with Libya in order to stem the flow of refugees from Africa. Indeed, European Council President, Donald Tusk said on Thursday, that closing the migration route from Libya to Italy is a priority and he agreed with French President, François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that the need to support Italy in its negotiating efforts, Corriere della Sera reports.
Greek Avghi adds that according to an EU official, EU leaders are expected to agree on a “new approach” in order to resolve this issue. High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini confirmed that there has been talks of increasing aid, including how to more practically allocate funds, Süddeutsche Zeitung indicates. The European Commission has also recognised difficulties in advancing agreements on the readmission of irregular migrants with North African countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan, lainformacion.com indicates in Spain.
In an interview with Portuguese Rádio Renascença, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat explains, that the European Union-Turkey agreement should be replicated in Libya, to destroy the human smugglers business. L’Opinion specifies that the European Commission is proposing to raise €200 million in 2017 for projects aiming to support the training of Libyan coast-guards, improve migrants’ living conditions in Libya and encourage the voluntary assisted return of migrants.
In La Stampa, Stefano Stefanini moreover notes that yesterday Italy managed to obtain the “unprecedented commitment” from Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, to act as a “migration filter” whatever the condition is for the EU to provide political support to Mr al-Sarraj.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not agree with this idea and would rather have Europe work with Libya without the ties of an agreement. Many politicians think that the EU should not make any agreements with Libya, as there have been reports of refugees being tortured, Erika Bjerström writes in an analysis on svt.se.
Similarly, NGOs have criticised the planned deal, claiming that a future cooperation with Libyan forces would undercut basic values of the EU, Lëtzebuerger Journal reports in Luxembourg. Jean-Jacques Mével also notes in Le Figaro, that many fear that once trained, Libyan coast guards could escape the EU’s control and even dissolve into rival factions or be tempted by smuggling money. An article in Süddeutsche Zeitung does point out, that the Libyan government is much too unstable for an agreement to be successful.
Libya expert Ali Hamouda also says in an interview with Dutch De Volkskrant, that it is useless for the EU to try to curb the migrant flow from Libya by trying to co-operate with the country as it is too divided, chaotic and ungovernable. Diplomats expect that the Valletta summit will result in an interim step with individual smaller measures at most, according to Austrian Der Standard.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Die Welt, Greek Minister for Migration Ioannis Mouzalas says that at the upcoming summit, his country will demand that Europe keep its promise to relocate 25,000 refugees currently stranded within its borders. On Spiegel.de, Maximilian Popp predicts that the EU summit will not even address the issue of how to improve quality of life for refugees in Greece.
©europeanunion2017
