Debate: Major interpellations
Date: THURSDAY, 29 FEBRUARY 2024
Speaker: Didier Reynders
Language: EN

You ask what we are doing to reduce migration pressure on Lampedusa and the EU as a whole. We are working on two tracks: legislative and operational. On legislation, we have the Pact. In December, the Council and Parliament reached an historic agreement on the Pact after three long years of negotiations, establishing a European approach to asylum and migration management. Parliament and the Council now need to formally adopt it. We have already started to prepare the ground for future implementation. Operationally, in September last year, President von der Leyen and Commissioner Johansson visited Lampedusa and the President presented a 10-point plan for Lampedusa. In the context of this plan and the 2022 EU Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean, the Commission has been providing substantial support to Italy. With 450 staff deployed, EU agencies are supporting the Italian authorities to manage migration and asylum, and with EUR 518.5 million from the home affairs funds for measures to support Italy’s asylum and reception system. We are engaging with countries of origin, like Ivory Coast and Guinea and other sub-Saharan countries, to address root causes and counter the smuggling networks. Our Memorandum of Understanding with Tunisia is producing results: a substantial reduction in departures to the European Union last September and October, and a corresponding reduction in arrivals to Lampedusa. Last November, we launched a global coalition against migrant smuggling. Some 75 countries took part in its first conference and we propose new EU laws to crack down on smuggling networks. Reducing irregular migration will increase possibilities for regular migration, which many Member States want and need. We are stepping up on returns of people who do not have the right to stay by cooperating on return and readmission with third countries. The Commission has serious doubts about the concept of floating accommodation centres, and the arrangement would have to meet the standards set out in EU legislation when it comes to the provision of adequate reception conditions and the processing of asylum applications. Under current Union law, people seeking international protection who are present in the territorial waters of a Member State should be disembarked on land to have their applications examined. We have retained the same principle in the Pact. Finally, concerning the terrorists who killed two Swedish football supporters in Brussels, I am from Belgium and my colleague, Commissioner Ylva Johansson, who I’m standing in for today, is from Sweden. This attack shocked us both on a very personal level. It seems the perpetrator had lived in the EU for many years and applied for asylum in several Member States, which had all been rejected. If anything, this asks for Member States to step up on returns, which we are pursuing with our return coordinator and a high-level network on returns, prioritising the returns of people who pose a security threat. And if anything, this argues for a swift implementation of the Pact, which will ensure that everyone is screened at the external border and that swift decisions on asylum and return are taken. When it comes to migration and asylum, there are no magic bullets, only comprehensive policies covering all possible aspects. And this is what we are doing with the Pact, with our operational work and all the support we are providing to the Member States. We do not need hypothetical floating reception centres when we have the reality of the Pact, the reality of an historic agreement on migration. So I call on you all to support the Pact and the implementation of the Pact.