Foreign and Interior Ministers Attend Meeting on Migration in Paris
22 July 2019 News
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva and Minister of Interior Mladen Marinov attended an informal meeting of EU and Schengen Foreign and Interior Ministers in Paris that focused on current migration problems in the Mediterranean.
The meeting was organised at the invitation of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Home Affairs Minister Christophe Castaner.
Deputy Prime Minister Zaharieva pointed out that short-term measures cannot offer long-term solutions and argued for the need of a permanent mechanism covering both sea and land borders. She welcomed the efforts and pragmatic approach adopted by the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council in search for a comprehensive and sustainable European solution. She stressed the need to press ahead with efforts for the effective implementation of readmission agreements with third countries and for the conclusion of new ones.
“If we want to prevent illegal entries into the EU, hard work is needed with all countries along the route and moreover in all areas,” Zaharieva said further on and stressed that the focus should not be limited to pressure in the Central Mediterranean but attention should also be paid to the Eastern Mediterranean, where nationals of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria form the bulk of the influx.
“Balancing responsibility with solidarity or, to put it differently, sharing the burdens fairly, is crucial,” Zaharieva said.
“The problem will not be solved without a single permanent mechanism valid throughout the EU. Temporary solutions or coalition solutions (by a group of Member State) can relieve the frontline States but will not solve comprehensively the problem facing the EU. It is important that we speak in a single voice on this topic and get the right messages across,” Zaharieva stressed.
Minister Marinov said that all countries along the routes, the countries of destination, transit and origin, are affected by migration and should assume their responsibilities - both to people in need of protection and to their own citizens. “As part of the Eastern Mediterranean Route, Bulgaria has been shouldering its responsibility as a front-line country and guarantees a high level of security at the external border of the European Union,” he said. The Bulgarian Interior Minister pointed to the substantial financial, logistical and human resources that this country invests in guaranteeing border security, suppressing illegal migration, preventing the emergence of new routes and curbing secondary movements. “Maintaining an adequate level of political and professional cooperation with neighbouring countries guarantees the rapid exchange of information and the implementation of joint actions when necessary, prioritising the definitive dismantling of organised crime groups for migrants’ trafficking,” the Interior Minister pointed out further on.
Minister Marinov assured the delegates that Bulgaria will continue to exercise maximum responsibility in countering illegal migration, just as it has been doing so far.
The Bulgarian ministers clearly stated that they oppose the reception of migrants straight from the ships.
The 150,000 cases of illegal entries into the EU, recorded in 2018 were 25% fewer than in 2017 and the lowest level in five years. As few as 32,000 illegal migrants arrived by sea in the first half of 2019. The highest numbers were recorded in Greece, 13,600 (largely unchanged from the same period of 2018) and in Spain, 10,500 (5,000 fewer). As a result of Italy’s cooperation with the Libyan authorities and the country’s new policy of non-admission of rescued migrants into the country, arrivals there were just 2,800 (compared to 16,500 for the same period of 2018). The only country in the Central Mediterranean that reported an increase was Malta, with 1,200 cases (up from 235 a year earlier).
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