AN EMERGENCY meeting of the European Council - the 28 EU-member
heads of state and government - in Brussels on Thurday agreed to
increase search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean to
combat further tragedies affecting migrant boats; but Europe's
political leaders failed to reach agreement on an EU-wide migration
policy.
The search-and-rescue initiative replaces "Mare Nostrum", an EU
naval operation that had been triggered in 2013 by the deaths of
400 asylum-seekers off the Italian island of Lampedusa, but then
cancelled a year later after some governments - including Britain -
claimed that it was encouraging unsafe migration.
The British immigration minister, James Brokenshire, told the
House of Commons at the time that people smugglers were using it as
cover to take greater risks: 3000 people had been killed in the
year Mare Nostrum was in operation compared with 700 in the whole
of 2013, he said (News, 14
November 2014).
But the deaths of an estimated 1300 migrants in the
Mediterranean over the past fortnight, bringing the total number
killed this year to about 1750, has forced the governments to think
again.
The EU currently has two sea-based migration protection
operations: Triton, in the Mediterranean, uses four fixed-wing
aircraft, a helicopter, and seven boats; and Poseidon, operating in
the Aegean, with one fixed-wing aircraft, a "Thermos-vision
vehicle", and ten boats.
Britain declined to participate in the patrols, offering instead
technical assistance in the form of a "debriefing expert". But on
Thursday, the Prime Minister told his EU counterparts that Britain
would now send the Royal Navy flagship HMS Bulwark, three
helicopters, and two border patrol ships to support Operation
Triton.
The EU leaders agreed to increase the budget of Operation Triton
to the levels of the Mare Nostrum. They also agreed to work towards
limiting "irregular migration flows" by working with countries of
origin and transit; to support "front-line member states under
pressure"; and to explore ways of capturing and destroying the
traffickers' vessels before they could be used.
"Saving the lives of innocent people is the number-one
priority," the European Council president, Donald Tusk, told
journalists after the meeting. "But saving lives is not just about
rescuing people at sea. It is also about stopping the smugglers and
addressing irregular migration
"Let me be clear. Europe did not cause this tragedy. But that
does not mean we can be indifferent. We are facing a difficult
summer and we need to be ready to act. . .
"Leaders had no illusions that we would solve this international
human emergency today. Therefore, we have tasked the Commission,
the Council, and the High Representative to step up their work,
based on what we have now agreed. This issue remains our priority
and the European Council will come back to it in June."
The European Council's failure to agree further steps is
unlikely to go down well in the European Parliament, where many
MEPs have supported the call of the European Commission president,
Jean-Claude Juncker, for an EU-wide migration policy and a system
of resettlement within Europe. Speaking before the European
Council's decisions were announced, the president of the European
Parliament, the German MEP Martin Schulz, told journalists that the
MEPs would deliver a "very, very lively response" if the heads of
government failed to deliver.
"What we need is legal immigration to Europe," he said. "Legal
immigration means that member states need to agree amongst
themselves on a fair quota system, meaning that people who come
here can then be re-allocated between the member states."
He said that the number of migrants granted asylum in the EU
last year - around 310,000 - was "feasible" in a population of
"over 500 million Europeans". But, he said, "if they all go to the
same places, it does become more difficult." He pointed out that
four member states - Germany, Sweden, Italy, and France - fielded
nearly two-thirds of all asylum applications in the EU.
"For decades now, the European Parliament had been discussing
these things in countless resolutions, and they predicted what has
happened would happen. The Commission itself has come up with a
number of proposals; but while the decisions are taken
geographically in Brussels, they are actually taken in Berlin,
London, Warsaw, Madrid, Lisbon, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Vienna - it's
the EU national capitals that decide these things, and that is why
you have this complicated, contradictory mix."
Before the meeting began, Mr Tusk had downplayed hope of any
agreement on resettlement, saying that it would be "the most
difficult, the most challenging" part of the meeting. "Why is it so
difficult? It will be a discussion about readiness to sacrifice
some national interests for the common economic good, and this is
always, here, the most challenging moment in our discussions," he
told journalists.
His point was demonstrated by the conditions David Cameron
imposed on his offer of HMS Bulwark. Speaking as he arrived in
Brussels for the summit, he said: "Britain, as ever, will help. We
will use our aid budget to stabilise neighbouring countries, and as
the country in Europe with the biggest defence budget we can make a
real contribution." But he stressed that this offer was made "under
the right conditions, and that must include that people we pick up
and who we deal with are taken to the nearest safe country, most
likely Italy, and don't have immediate recourse to claim asylum in
the UK."
It was a point he reiterated at the end of the meeting: "I think
it is right for Britain to step forward, for the Royal Navy to play
a role. They will be saving lives, not offering people asylum in
the UK, but saving lives and taking them to Italy or other nearby
countries."
Mr Juncker admitted that he was disappointed with the outcome.
"We are not going to find a solution to this problem if we deal
solely with illegal immigration. We have to take account also of
the legal migration side of things," he said. "I would have liked
for us to be more ambitious. That was not possible.
The European Commission will continue to discuss its "agenda for
migration" in May, as they attempt to come up with "a package that
will enable us to have a more comprehensive approach". MEPs will
have a chance to debate this issue in a keynote debate in
Strasbourg on Wednesday.