Italy's proposal for a "migrant compact" to usher in a new approach to dealing with asylum seekers faces its first test on Monday when it will be examined at a meeting of European Union foreign and defence ministers.
The document has already won backing from the European Commission and from European Council President Donald Tusk after Premier Matteo Renzi sent it on Friday. The document envisages a framework accord with countries of origin and transit and a financial commitment by the EU.
Renzi said in a letter accompanying the proposed compact that "the management of migrant flows is no longer sustainable without targeted and reinforced cooperation with the Third Countries of origin and transit".
He said "much has been done, but we must do much more, quickly, if we want to avert the worsening of a systemic crisis." The migrant return deal between the EU and Turkey "should not remain an isolated event", Renzi said in the letter accompanying the 'migration compact' proposal.
The accord "represents a first concrete attempt at enlarged and reinforced cooperation with a third country which, albeit clinched in a situation of urgency, and therefore perfectible, shows how it is possible to draw up effective lines of action in the management of migrant flows," he said.
If it were to be a one-off, Renzi said, "that would determine an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed with respect to other geographical regions which are no less important in view of the migratory issue." Renzi also said in the letter that EU foreign policy is "central" to keeping up the Schengen Area and the EU must move from an "emergency" management of the migrant crisis to a "strategic" one.
"The external dimension of migratory policy (takes on) a fundamental role in the preservation of Schengen," he said, stressing that new border guards and the reform of the Dublin III regulation "can only give concrete results if, in parallel, the management of migratory flows moves from the emergency phase to that of a more ordered and strategic management".
The migration compact will be distributed as an unofficial document at an upcoming EU foreign ministers' meeting.
The compact has been drafted in view of an increasing switch in flows of migrants and refugees to the Libya-Italy route after the Greece-Balkan route was closed off thanks to the EU-Turkey deal.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
