Malta will not let the international community forget about the ongoing crisis in Libya, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today. He was addressing a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi in Florence.
“It is Malta’s duty, as Libya’s neighbour, to make sure that the situation in Libya is not forgotten on an international level. There is an ongoing crisis in Libya, where part of the country has been taken by terrorists. We have to help Libya achieve a national unity government. We want a credible partner in Libya. If not, the situation will become much worse.”
Mr Renzi thanked Malta for its efforts alongside Italy to save lives at sea. “Joseph and I think that there is no option but to try and save all those who are in peril at sea. This is not only an emergency. It will take long and will need an international approach.”
The Italian PM said that, as a father, the images of 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan, whose body washed up ashore in Turkey, hurt him deeply. The EU cannot lose face in front of such images and similar once coming from Greece, Hungary and France. The issue is not only saving lives and burden sharing but also an international approach to tackle the issues leading to migration. Europe has to show its human side, he said.
“Our first step is to acknowledge that the crisis will not be solved in a matter of days but the problem requires a long-term international approach. Malta and Italy want to work together on this issue.” He referred to the EU-Africa Summit that will be held in Malta in November and hoped this would serve as a platform for the two sides to discuss the way forward.
Dr Muscat said migration was until a few years ago synonymous with Spanish islands in the Mediterranean. Then Malta and Italy entered the picture. Now the crisis has moved to other countries, like Hungary and Austria. “No single country can come up with a solution on its own. It has to be a European solution. EU countries cannot pass the buck,” Dr Muscat said.
The first priority, he said, was to save lives. This was undisputed. Malta and Italy were doing their best to save people. Malta, with its limited resources, would continue playing its part. But it would also keep insisting that relocation was a thing for the entire EU, and not for a few countries.
Those countries that did not want to take migrants had to play a part in some other way, he said. African countries also had to do their part. “This cannot be done in ten minutes or ten months.”
Replying to questions, Mr Renzi said “a Europe that speaks about numbers, balances, taxes and bureaucracy before the migrant crisis is a Europe that has lost touch with its history. This is not a time for pedagogy but a time to be serious and democratic.”
Mr Renzi said the EU needs to go to the source countries with a serious foreign and economic policy. “Let us not blame the migrants,” he said. “Would you not try to escape if you were in the same situation they were in?” He conceded that the crisis could be a burden on EU economies but said member states cannot simply lock their doors in the face of this human tragedy.
The number of migrants who have arrived in Italy, while remaining high, was the same as last year. EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker had understood that Europe cannot be about numbers and lose the ideals that founded it. Several heads of member states had also understood this.
Dr Muscat said one should not confuse the European Commission with Europe. However, the Commission had become much more sensitive to the issue and there was a positive change in attitudes. History will judge us on the decisions we take today, he said.
Replying to another question, Mr Renzi said the important thing was not that Italy and Malta were proven right but that a solution was found. Instead of being moved by what is happening, the EU should move, it should act. Europe can find a solution with credibility and passion, he said.
Dr Muscat said Malta will go to the next summit standing firm on its position on migration, hoping that other countries would be persuaded to agree.