Juncker response on migrants a step forward says Conte

(ANSA) - Rome, July 20 - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's reply to Premier Giuseppe Conte's letter asking that Italy not be the only country where the Sophia mission lands migrants "is another important step forward," Conte said Friday. "We have made another important step forward on the immigration front today," Conte said.
    "The reply from President Juncker, whom I thank, de facto accepts the principle whereby immigration is a European challenge, which concerns all 28 countries and which therefore requires European solutions and not ones from any single country".
    Setting up a migrant 'crisis cabinet' as proposed by Italy has been accepted by the EU, Premier Conte said in a post on Friday. "I am satisfied that our proposal to create a 'crisis cabinet' coordinated by the EU has been fully accepted," he said.
    Conte said the so-called cabinet would "manage the immigration emergency in a united, coordinated and stable way".
    He quoted parts of Juncker's letter, to the effect that "you will realise on your own that step by step we are realising that change that we had promised". Juncker said Friday Conte was "right" to urge regional cooperation on migrant landings but "ad hoc solutions do not represent a sustainable way of proceeding". Juncker was referring to the division of 450 migrants who landed at Pozzallo in Sicily among six EU countries.
    He said "the events of last weekend showed a shared sense of solidarity on the part of member States (France, Germany, Malta, Spain, Portugal and Ireland) who offered to take a part of the migrants who landed at Pozzallo".
    Juncker was replying to a letter to EU authorities from Conte proposing making such arrangements permanent for the Sophia Mission.
    The European Commission said Friday that it did not decide on migrant landings in the EU.
    A spokesman said "the Commission can only act within its competence, the Commission does not have competence in search and rescue, nor on the decisions on landing points, and that is not something we can coordinate".
    He said "what we can do, and what we are already doing, is that once people have been disembarked, we can coordinate among member states who offer to take some of the landed migrants".