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".
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