The EU College of Commissioners
on Wednesday adopted the European Agenda on Migration, which
includes a proposed scheme for settling in Europe 20,000 asylum
seekers coming from refugee camps in third countries.
Italy's quota will be 9.94%, EU sources said.
As well, the Agenda calls for a redistribution of asylum
seekers already present in Europe.
Italy will be assigned 11.84% of them, the sources said.
Italy however is exempted from receiving new refugees
because it has already exceeded the quota, EU Foreign Affairs
High Commissioner Federica Mogherini said, adding her thanks to
the Commission for its work.
"EU Agenda on Migration adopted by the Commission. Thank
you @JunckerEU @TimmermansEU and @Avramopoulos for excellent
teamwork," she tweeted.
The four criteria for distributing the refugees among
member States are population, GDP, number of refugees already
hosted, and unemployment rate.
Also part of the plan is to destroy migrant traffickers'
boats via air and sea operations in the Mediterranean and in
Libyan waters.
A 19-page document on a strategic plan on immigration to be
approved at an EU foreign and defense council meeting next
Monday may authorize ground troops in Libya to destroy migrant
traffickers' boats under a UN mandate, The Guardian UK newspaper
reported Wednesday after it got hold of a copy of the document.
Mogherini however denied the EU is mulling any such ground
operations in Libya.
"We are planning a naval operation against migrant
traffickers," she told a Guardian UK reporter.
"We want to assist member States in halting the
humanitarian slaughter and offer sustainable long-term
solutions" to a problem "that won't disappear just because we're
talking about it," European Commission First Vice President
Frans Timmermans said while presenting the newly adopted Agenda.
"The reason many citizens don't trust us lies in our
limited powers to send those unqualified to enter Europe back to
their countries of origin," Timmermans went on.
"Sending the unqualified back is an integral part of our
plan," he added.
"The greatest gift we could make extremists and
anti-immigration populists is to make sure a system that doesn't
work, remains that way," Timmermans said.
Also on Wednesday, the EU Political and Security Committee
(PSC) decided to boost its civilian mission in Niger in a bid to
stem the flow of undocumented migrants towards Europe.
Some 90% of migrants from western Africa transit through
Niger on their way to Libya.
"It is only by working with the countries of origin and of
transit, with the African Union and the United Nations that we
will be able to deal with the root causes of the emergency,"
Mogherini said.
"That way we can destroy the criminal organizations and
help migrants escape from their grip".
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