Mizzi calls for clear commitment to revise Dublin Regulation

Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi welcomed the Commission proposal for a European Agenda on Migration saying that this is the right step forward and the four pillars on which it is based cannot be faulted.  

The Agenda is yet another opportunity to finally find the right balance and to make a common European migration policy a reality.  

"The Commission is finally sending out a clear message that it is time to deal with this issue collectively and that no Member States can effectively address the issue alone,” she said.

 "The new proposal puts forward some very concrete and immediate measures to save lives at sea and help member states that are under extreme pressures by introducing mandatory and automatically-triggered relocation system for distribution of migrants among the EU Member States, an EU-wide resettlement programme and a Blue card for highly skilled migrants."  

"However the Commission could have been a little bit more ambitious and concrete. For example, it is not clearly defined what 'mass influx' is and when exactly the emergency response mechanism will be triggered.”

Mizzi said that, for example, 500 people were 'mass influx' for Malta but this might not be the case for countries like Germany.

“The Commission is using a distribution key on  which it will relocate asylum seekers among the Member States, nevertheless in my opinion the size of the countries not only the population needs to be taken into account,” she said.

“The Commission commits itself to table legislation by the end of the year to provide a mandatory and automatically-triggered relocation system, but what about clear commitment to revise Dublin Regulation. Dublin has very clear criteria on entry, therefore I am really curious to see how the mandatory quota system will work in practice.  The Commission should develop further the proposal for a EU-wide resettlement scheme, which is not really adequate in its current scale with only 20,000 places.”

Mizzi said that while the Commission proposal was focusing on firefighting, it had somehow ignored the root of the problem.

“Migration is a symptom not the cause. I am glad to see that the situation in Libya, Syria and other countries is addressed and that the Commission specifically mentions the African Union Summit, which will be organised in Malta, however I think that more needs to be done to properly address the root of the problem.”

Mizzi was recently appointed as the S&D rapporteur on ‘The Situation in the Mediterranean and the need for a holistic EU approach to migration’ opinion. Mizzi is set to focus on full internal solidarity and responsibility sharing among the Member States and the review of Dublin regulation for  mandatory quota distribution.