A European Agenda on Migration
Strong Italian pressures pushed Europe to increase its contribution to solve the migration crisis in the Mediterranean
At the last UN Security Council, Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, expressed serious concerns about illegal migrant flows unrelentingly coming from Libya to the EU. She pointed out the main bedrocks of European Strategy, asking for the legitimation by the UN of military interventions against people-smugglers. Mogherini stressed the responsibility of the whole world community to intervene in such a crisis, which is not merely a humanitarian but also a security one. A European Agenda to manage migration was also announced and four pillars to better manage this problem identified.
Among the immediate actions to be taken to respond to the crisis situation in the Mediterranean, the EU stressed the need to "triple the capacities and assets for the Frontex joint operations Triton and Poseidon in 2015 and 2016"; propose "the first ever activation of the emergency mechanism to help Member states confronted with a sudden influx of migrants", with a temporary distribution mechanism for persons in clear need of international protection to be announced by the end of May; approve a "EU-wide resettlement scheme to offer 20 000 places distributed in all Member States"; and to start working "on a possible Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operation in the Mediterranean to dismantle traffickers' networks and fight smuggling of people, in accordance with international law".
The four pillars identified to better manage migrations in all its aspects are: "reducing the incentives for irregular migration [...] addressing the root causes through development cooperation and humanitarian assistance"; "saving lives and securing external borders", promote "a strong common asylum policy", and "a new policy on legal migration", aimed at "maintaining a Europe in demographic decline as an attractive destination for migrants, notably by modernising and overhauling the Blue Card scheme, by reprioritising our integration policies, and by maximising the benefits of migration policy to individuals and countries of origin, including by facilitating cheaper, faster and safer remittance transfers".
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