It is Malta’s intention to organise a follow-up at senior official’s level of the Valletta Summit on Migration during its Presidency of the Council of the EU next year, Home Affairs and National Security Minister, Carmelo Abela, told a European Parliament delegation on Monday 18th July 2016.
MEPs Cecile Kyenge (S&D), Helga Stevens (ECR), Carlos Coelho (EPP) and Miriam Dalli (S&D) from the assembly’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee paid the Minister a courtesy call while in Malta for an exchange of views on the strategic and operational priorities of the Malta-based European Asylum Support Office (EASO). Also present for the meeting were the Head of the EP’s Office in Malta, Peter Agius, and other EP officials.
The Valletta Summit convened in Malta in November 2015 and brought together European and African Heads of State and Government in an effort to strengthen cooperation and address both the challenges and the opportunities of migration. Participating leaders adopted a political declaration and an action plan designed to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement; enhance cooperation on legal migration and mobility; reinforce the protection of migrants and asylum seekers; prevent and fight irregular migration, migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings; and work more closely to improve cooperation on return, readmission and reintegration. They also agreed a list of 16 concrete actions to be implemented by the end of 2016. The follow-up meeting to the Valletta Summit would see senior officials from all European and African partner countries come together for a stock-taking exercise, said Minister Abela.
“Migration and asylum will undoubtedly still be very high on the EU’s agenda when Malta takes over the EU Presidency, and we will strive to foster amongst the bloc’s Member States a common strategy to address the issue efficaciously,” said Minister Abela. “We are in the same boat and we muct therefore act together in a spirit of solidarity. On the European level we’ve been taking a lot about possible solutions and ways forward, and it is important that we now deliver concrete results. Our citizens expect that from us. We look forward to a very good working relationship with the European Parliament during our Presidency.”
The Minister explained Malta’s position on the several asylum- and migration-related dossiers currently on the EU’s table. He expressed the country’s support for the European Commission’s proposal to reform EASO to give it an enhanced supporting role to play in the context of the Common European Asylum System. He said Malta fully collaborates with the Agency, and has helped it acquire more space to be able to expand its operations.
After the meeting with at the Ministry, MEPs Kyenge, Stevens and Coelho, accompanied by the Head of the EP’s Office in Malta together with other EP staff visited the Marsa Open Centre. They were given a presentation about how the centre is run and were shown around the premises by Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (AWAS) Acting CEO, Joseph Baldacchino, and the Centre’s Coordinator, Ann Marie Pisani.