European leaders want long-term migration solutions from Valletta summit

European Parliament president Martin Schulz and European Council president Donald Tusk have called on European and African leaders to make use tomorrow’s Valletta summit to thrash out concrete, long-term solutions to Europe’s refugee crisis.

In a joint address at the Maltese Parliament – a historic first for the leaders of these two European institutions – Schulz and Tusk insisted that European countries must invest in the development of Africa.

“As long as war continues, people will continue to flee, and as long as people face persecution in their homeland, they will seek protection elsewhere,” Schulz said. “Lets stop patching up short term solutions, and use the summit to come up with long-term solutions through which Europe will invest in Africa’s development, support good governance, boost local economies through trade, create legal channels for migration, boost search and rescue operations, and fight human smugglers.

Our strategy can never consist of fighting migrants, but in fighting the root causes of migration, conflict and poverty.”

He called on EU member states to invest significantly in a new EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa that will be set up during the two-day summit and to which the European Commission has already contributed €1.8 billion.

“This will be money well invested and will make a difference to several lives.” He said. “This is a European problem, and European problems can only be solved through European answers.
“After the 2008 financial crisis, it became clear that we can no longer conceive of our economies as closed black boxes but as extremely interconnected. The new crisis that effects us all is about saving human lives and safeguarding European values.”

He hailed Malta as a “tremendously successful melting pot” of different cultures, citing its cuisine and language.

“When I first came to Malta to learn firsthand of its migration challenge posed to the country, I was touched by what I saw - a Maltese fishermen towing sinking vessel into the harbour, a soldier rescuing someone from a rubber boat, a nurse attending to a young boy who had collapsed, and volunteers handing out toys to children.”

Similarly, Tusk warned that Africa’s economic problems go deeper than a refugee crisis, and that Europe must tackle the key African issues of governance, economy and rule of law while respecting the countries’ sovereignity.

“We should double the amount of placement offered to Africans through Erasmus Plus, base African officials in Europe to help us identify people who destroy their passports, fund training and education programmes for struggling African communities, and provide administrative help and more resources to help Africa deal with huge migration problem within its own continent.”

‘Perfect time to discuss EU reform’ – Muscat

In his speech, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat didn’t discuss the migration crisis, arguing that he would have plenty of time to do so over the next two days. Instead, he hailed his own government’s achievements in reducing unemployment, expanding the economy, reducing the deficit, free childcare, and introducing civil unions and a gender identity law.

He also called for a proper debate on EU reform, currently being pushed by UK prime minister David Cameron.

“This is a perfect time to think about what Europe we would like to live in,” he said, while insisting that he will refuse reform that leads to “greater flexibility outside the Eurozone but enhanced rigidity within the monetary union”.

“The EU must invest more in the its relationships with the rest of the world, and reduce the bureaucracy currently involved in investment between Europe and other countries,” he said. “While we should certainly raise our standards, this shouldn’t come at the cost of hindering business.

“Protectionism is only effective in the short-term, while opening up the market is the best route to remain competitive.”

‘Lack of public migration debate  – Busuttil

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil warned that the failure of national parliaments to properly debate people’s concerns on immigration could be leading to a rise in racist and xenophobic sentiment.

“We would be mistaken to brush off the public’s concerns on immigration, or try and sweep them under the carpet,” he said. “If we as elected representatives don’t discuss immigration, then the populists, xenophobes and racists will do it for us, and we all know what disastrous consequences this can have.”

Describing the several deaths of asylum seekers in the Mediterranean as a “European tragedy”, Busuttil said that this summer’s influx of Syrian refugees crossing all over Europe has given EU leaders the chance to finally act on a problem that has long existed.

“The challenge of European leaders now is to not accept the globalization of indifference, to show that they can feel the public’s pulse on immigration issues, to show respect for external - and not internal - European borders, and to realize that it is unacceptable in 2015 for thousands of people to drown at sea simply because they wanted to seek a better life.”