‘European institutions not empowered to tackle immigration adequately’

The European Parliament’s vice president Gianni Pittella admitted that he’s not satisfied at how this institution tackled the issue of irregular immigration during the past legislature.

Pittella, who was on a visit to Malta in the past days, acknowledged the short-comings of the EP in this sector but said that currently the institutions are not empowered to take the necessary action.

“I’m not satisfied at all, but currently there’s no true power on a European level to address irregular immigration in the Mediterranean adequately. Everything is left to the Member States, which make it more difficult to take important legislative decisions,” Pittella said.

He said that strong political will was required to unite and convince northern EU member states to share the burden with the Mediterranean countries.

There’s no true power on a European level to address irregular immigration in the Mediterranean Gianni Pittella, vice-president of the European Parliament

Asked whether he agreed with those who said that Dublin II regulations needed to be amended, the vice president answered in the affirmative and concurred that these were discriminatory against southern Member States.

Accompanied by Labour’s head of delegation Joseph Cuschieri, the Italian MEP also said that the EU had to decide it’s future and said that a United States of Europe was one of the solutions.

“It is only then that European states can compete and have an equal say with other superpowers such as the US and Japan. Currently we are neither a federation nor a confederation, we need to move forward,” Pittella underlined.

Read more in today’s issue of Illum.