Foreign Minister George Vella and Interior Minister Carmelo Abela attended an extraordinary meeting on migration in Luxembourg today where a 10-point plan of action was agreed on. The 10 actions will be conveyed to the European Council which meets on Thursday in an extraordinary session of the Heads of State and Government.

Minister Vella stressed the importance of tangible action and appealed to the EU Member States to engage fully and be fully committed in addressing the situation. He said, 'the EU must try to do its best to avoid another human tragedy, if it is to retain any credibility.' Minister Abela called for bold decisions and emphasised the need to focus on action to fight against trafficking and smuggling networks in the immediate term, 'our democracies, the EU are stronger than the smugglers - we need to stop the deaths that are occurring in the Mediterranean Sea now.  There was broad agreement on the need for a comprehensive EU response, in particular the proposal for an international framework to fight against smugglers and traffickers. A number of Member States, the High Representative and Commissioner called for support and solidarity for the front-line states.

Earlier on in the day, Foreign Affairs Ministers opened their Council meeting by observing a one-minute silence in memory of the hundreds of migrants who perished when a boat capsized off the Libyan coast which resulted in the death of hundreds of migrants. The High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mongherini thanked Italy and Malta for the steps undertaken in the rescue operation. Ministers also discussed the political situation in Libya and reaffirmed their support for the efforts by United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative Bernardino Leon. They also urged parties to come to an agreement in the coming days.

The action plan proposes:

• Reinforce Joint Operations in the Mediterranean and extend operational area;

• Systematic effort to capture and destroy vessels used by the smugglers.;

• EUROPOL, FRONTEX, EASO and EUROJUST to work closely to gather information on smugglers;

• EASO to deploy teams in Italy and Greece for joint processing of asylum applications;

• Member States to ensure fingerprinting of all migrants;

• Consider options for emergency relocation mechanism;

• EU-wide voluntary pilot project on resettlement;

• New return programme for rapid return of irregular migrants;

• Engagement with countries surrounding Libya;

• Deploy Immigration Liaison Officers (ILO) in key third countries, to gather intelligence on migratory flows.