(ANSAmed) - Brussels, April 18 - The European Commission on
Monday said it gave a "great welcome" to the migration compact
proposed by Italy and that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker was
"very happy that the European approach finds strong support" on
the part of Italy and Premier Matteo Renzi, according to EC
spokesperson Margaritis Schinas.
"We will work in close contact with Matteo Renzi to continue
to push to have more Europe," she said. Italy on Friday sent the
wide-ranging 'migration compact' to the presidents of the
European Commission and the European Council, Juncker and Donald
Tusk, to help cut migrant flows.
The document envisages a framework accord with countries of
origin and transit and a big financial commitment by the EU
which could be achieved by redistributing already earmarked
funds and also via possible Eurobonds, the sources said.
Premier Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed
compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer
sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the
Third Countries of origin and transit".
He said "much has been done, but we must do much more,
quickly, if we want to avert the worsening of a systemic
crisis."
The migrant return deal between the EU and Turkey "should
not remain an isolated event", Renzi said in the letter
accompanying the 'migration compact' proposal.
The accord "represents a first concrete attempt at
enlarged and reinforced cooperation with a third country which,
albeit clinched in a situation of urgency, and therefore
perfectible, shows how it is possible to draw up effective lines
of action in the management of migrant flows," he said.
If it were to be a one-off, Renzi said, "that would
determine an imbalance in terms of resources and political
capital employed with respect to other geographical regions
which are no less important in view of the migratory issue."
Renzi also said in the letter that EU foreign policy is
"central" to keeping up the Schengen Area and the EU must move
from an "emergency" management of the migrant crisis to a
"strategic" one.
"The external dimension of migratory policy (takes on) a
fundamental role in the preservation of Schengen," he said,
stressing that new border guards and the reform of the Dublin
III regulation "can only give concrete results if, in parallel,
the management of migratory flows moves from the emergency phase
to that of a more ordered and strategic management".
The migration compact will be distributed as an unofficial
document at an upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting.
The compact has been drafted in view of an increasing switch
in flows of migrants and refugees to the Libya-Italy route after
the Greece-Balkan route was closed off thanks to the EU-Turkey
deal.
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