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The European Parliament convened final week for its closing plenary session earlier than the summer season break. Its agenda was bold, stuffed with proposals and information that want approval earlier than the top of the mandate subsequent yr. Some had been rejected, however many had been adopted, together with the parliament’s decision calling for EU motion on search and rescue missions within the Mediterranean.
Initiated by the Renew Europe group and supported by the primary parliamentary teams, this decision constitutes an unprecedented transfer by our EU Parliament.
Now we have referred to as for the institution of a complete and long-term EU search-and-rescue mission, carried out by member states and Frontex, the EU’s border and coast guard company. This isn’t solely a vital act, a authorized obligation beneath each EU and worldwide regulation, but additionally a humane act, an illustration of solidarity that underscores the European Union’s dedication to upholding its elementary values of compassion and respect for human life.
The decision’s significance can’t be understated.
Since January, almost 2,000 migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean, and final month, a ship carrying refugees capsized off the coast of Pylos, Greece, drowning almost 600 migrants.
Whereas the Greek coast guard asserts the migrant vessel declined aide previous to the incident, a BBC investigation reached totally different conclusions, suggesting the boat was possible in misery for hours previous to sinking.
If true, this neglect would represent a damning violation of worldwide regulation, however accountability has not been forthcoming, because the Greek authorities’s probe into the tragedy will likely be secret.
Underneath the decision’s proposed pointers, there can be no secrecy; if correctly carried out, the EU’s transparency and accountability guidelines would apply for shipwrecks, making certain that future investigations are unbiased, immediate, and publicly uncover the reality.
For a very long time, member states haven’t taken their full tasks for search and rescue, leaving humanitarian NGOs to fill within the gaps. Whereas their altruism is commendable, search and rescue is a state obligation.
This proposed decision lastly acknowledges this EU duty, reinforcing the capabilities and authority of Frontex, offering concrete accountability measures for member states, granting the EU Fee a higher coordinating function for operations at sea and giving it the authority to evaluate the search and rescue practices of member state coast guards.
On the similar time, the struggle towards smugglers and human traffickers is a key part of our complete and long-term EU search and rescue mission. We should dismantle the prison networks who overcrowd their vessels and create unsafe circumstances, together with in third international locations; the decision’s proposed growth of Frontex’s help would assist obtain this objective. We name upon the fee, the Council, member states and all different involved actors to implement these proposals of the parliament.
Nevertheless, extra work must be finished.
The humanitarian disaster within the Mediterranean is a symptom of a bigger drawback that has threatened the EU’s worldwide accountability for years: the absence of secure and authorized pathways for migration and asylum in Europe.
The Spanish EU presidency, which assumed its function on 1 July, has recognized this as a precedence and expressed its intention to finalise the New Pact on Asylum and Migration, a work-in-progress since 2020. Its passage would require concerted legislative efforts by the presidency, however it’s crucial that we cooperate to finish this essential work.
The pact would streamline asylum procedures, strengthen exterior border controls, implement measures to raised combine migrants and asylum seekers into European society, and additional delineate transparency necessities for migration incidents, amongst different measures. Extra typically, it will formally floor the EU’s immigration coverage in solidarity and duty sharing.
Progress has been made on this essential measure; earlier this yr, the Renew Europe group performed a key function in securing the cross-party majority that led parliament to undertake its place on the pact’s laws, and since then, the council has agreed on its negotiation place for a number of of the important thing laws.
This features a necessary solidarity mechanism, which might alleviate the burden on Mediterranean, Balkan and japanese European member states. Nevertheless, the council should nonetheless discover a compromise on one of the essential parts, the disaster regulation, which might set particular guidelines for migration enforcement throughout emergencies.
For the pact to be efficient, we should clearly outline this regulation’s limits in order that no member state can abuse the powers included throughout the clause.
However time is operating out. To implement these reforms by the top of the mandate, the council and parliament should attain an settlement by February 2024. If we fail to grab momentum, a reform of the EU’s asylum and migration system will disappear over the horizon, additional condemning Europe to its present, dysfunctional system.
The Spanish presidency has an enormous duty on its shoulders to make sure we attain a deal. We on the Renew Europe group are prepared to start out swift and pragmatic negotiations. Lives are on the road.
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