The EU Internal Affairs Council
decided to postpone until the end of the day on Wednesday a
decision on a proposed new deal on migration and asylum aiming
to ensure greater solidarity towards member states receiving the
greatest number of sea arrivals amid failure to reach an
agreement on relocations, qualified sources told ANSA.
The interior ministers agreed to proceed with consideration of
other items on the agenda while EU ambassadors conducted
sideline negotiations in pursuit of a deal.
"We have to reach the agreement today," German Interior Minister
Nancy Faeser told her EU counterparts at the meeting in
Luxembourg to finalize a new compromise proposal put forward by
the Swedish European Council presidency to allocate national
reception quotas for migrants and asylum seekers arriving in the
European Union to each member state and oblige those that refuse
to accept them to pay 22,000 euros per person not received.
"We succeeded when Putin attacked Ukraine, it was not easy when
the eastern countries were flooded with refugees. But please
let's not put new requests on the table, please let's find a
compromise," Faeser added.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also insisted on the
need for agreement on the relocation mechanism.
"France pays a high price in secondary movements (of migrants
and asylum seekers), but we will play our part not only in
funding but also in relocations," said Darmanin insisting that
relocations needed to happen.
"Right now there is not enough solidarity towards the southern
states. The compromise that has been found is not perfect but it
can work," he added.
Earlier Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told his
counterparts that Italy is not opposed to the deal but that
corrections are still needed, adding that the redistribution of
only 1,500 migrants and asylum seekers under existing agreements
among member states shows that the principle of solidarity has
failed.
Italy has seen a dramatic increase in the number of migrants and
refugees arriving by sea on its southern shores since the start
of the year and insists that the issue must be tackled at
European level.
Piantedosi told colleagues that in Italy the memory of the
February 26 Cutro migrant boat shipwreck where 94 people mostly
from Afghanistan died on the Calabrian coast "is still alive",
and the hotspot on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa has turned
into "a migrant management centre with heavy local
implications." Therefore, Piantedosi said, "strong overseas
action by the Union" is needed to tackle the migration problem.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
