|
BRUSSELS - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Sunday that he
is "definitely satisfied" with the migration summit in Brussels, hailing
that European leaders "have the right direction in the current debate."
The prime minister expressed his satisfaction in a tweet after the summit ended, without going into detail.
When leaving the summit, his German counterpart Angela Merkel told reporters that "we are all responsible for all issues."
"That means it can not be that some care about the so-called primary
migration, while the others care about the secondary migration," she
said, alluding to overstretched frontline states like Italy.
The EU should offer the second tranche of 3 billion euros to Turkey
under the cash-for-repatriation deal, and continue to provide support to
the Lybian coast guard, Merkel stressed.
The EU struck the deal with Turkey in March 2016 and engaged Libyan
coast guard in cracking down on migrant trafficking, following the peak
year of 2015 which saw more than 1 million irregular migrants flocking
to Europe.
The informal summit, convened by European Commission President Jean
Claude-Juncker, is expected to lay the groundwork for the formal one
slated for June 28-29, when the reform of the Common European Asylum
System (CEAS) will feature prominently on the agenda.
Italy has long been frustrated at bearing the brunt of the migratory
pressure under the current Dublin Regulation whereby migrants lodge
asylum claims in the first EU country they enter.
The simmering discontent has vaulted the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement and the nationalist League into power.
Migration has recently returned to the fore on EU agenda as a war of
words broke out between France and Italy over a rescue ship loaded with
over 600 migrants.
The ship eventually docked in a Spanish port after being turned away
by Italy, whose new right-wing, populist coalition government has taken a
hardline stance on immigration, as promised on the campaign trail.
http://africa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201806/25/WS5b3051dea3103349141de88b.html
|