Foreign Minister Michael Frendo called on the Foreign Ministers of the European Union to accept the Maltese proposal for responsibility-sharing by all the 27 member states for persons saved from the search and rescue area of non-EU states which lay adjacent to member states.
The credibility of the European Union is on the line in irregular migration matters, Dr Frendo said.
Speaking in Luxembourg, he said that, while everyone had a responsibility to save people at sea, the issue remained as to which country was to accept migrants once they were saved. It was blatantly unfair and unacceptable that this responsibility for migrants saved from the search and rescue area of third parties should be placed on Malta alone or solely on any other European Mediterranean border states such as Italy, Spain, Greece or France.
Dr Frendo said “there has to be responsibility-sharing by all the 27 member states. Malta has made a tangible concrete proposal to the council.
“We are aware that some countries have reservations on this proposal but,” he emphasised, “member states need to either take up Malta’s concrete proposal on illegal immigration or else come up with other tangible proposals themselves – the problem exists and it is not enough just to discuss it or to reject a proposal without offering an alternative: citizens judge the EU on effective solidarity action and this is needed in a concrete way.”
Malta was certainly doing its bit and more, Dr Frendo said: “In the last three weeks, the Maltese Armed Forces rescued at sea and brought ashore over 340 irregular migrants in 13 separate incidents at sea.”
He said that in Malta there was a growing disillusionment with the EU on this matter because the Maltese were expecting action on the ground. “Solidarity is at the heart of the European project,” he emphasised.
He supported the holding of Frontex operations in the central Mediterranean but said that even these operations must take place within the parameters of burden-sharing by all the member states of the European Union for persons saved at sea.
He made an impassioned plea for the European Union to take up with UNHCR the issue of EU member states being able to include in their UNHCR quota refugees or persons with a humanitarian status from other EU member states such as Malta which is suffering a disproportionate burden in this matter.
The German presidency of the council also commented that it was clear that Malta had a special difficulty in this issue and said that, once the proposals were discussed at working group and COREPER levels, there should be further space for tackling this issue at future GAERC (General Affairs and External Relations Council) meetings.
On Sunday, Dr Frendo participated in the Foreign Ministers’ Conclave on the Constitutional Treaty in preparation for the European Summit later this week. He put across Malta’s views on the way forward, emphasising that Malta was seeking consensus on this issue and was flexible as to form but that, on substance, it should be noted that Malta was one of the countries that not only signed the treaty – as did all the 27 member states – but also ratified it unanimously in Parliament.
He therefore said that while Malta was very sensitive to any unbalancing of the package, it could live with the adoption of the traditional format of an amending treaty, considering this as a change in approach which, without effectively changing the core of the agreed package, could – with reluctance and in the interest of arriving at a consensus and moving forward – not specifically mention in the amending treaty what was already established as acquis.
He advocated flexibility in a bid to reach what was effectively “a compromise on a compromise” that had been filtered through the European Convention and the Inter-Governmental Conference.