Labour MEPs deplore EPP's weakness on immigration burden sharing

Labour MEPs Louis Grech, Edward Scicluna and John Attard Montalto today criticised the EPP group for their failure to agree a principle of burden sharing and solidarity that would allow Member States including Italy, Spain and Malta to cope with mass migration in the aftermath of the Libya crisis.

10 March 2011, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

1 min read

In a statement, the MEPs said that both the Socialist and Democrat and EPP groups had tabled separate resolutions on how to deal with the crisis in Libya.

However, while the S&D group, at the instigation of the Maltese delegation, demanded burden sharing and the adoption of a Common EU Asylum System, S&D spokeswomen Ana Gomes confirmed that the EPP refused to accept this.

Responding to this the Labour delegation said: "No single country will be able to tackle the great and complex difficulties brought about by large flows of migration alone, and this is particularly true in the case of smaller Member States."

"What we need is a burden-sharing action plan to help resettle refugees from the region, based on the principle of solidarity between Member States, and a special solidarity fund to face the humanitarian pressures caused by the crisis."

So far Malta has evacuated 13,000 people of 89 different nationalities at its own risk. "We did this not because of EU legislation or Frontex, but on humanitarian grounds," MEP Edward Scicluna said.

"The Maltese demand meaningful solidarity with a re-location policy based on the principle of burden-sharing. In the light of this it is disappointing and incomprehensible to see the EPP and their shirking this responsibility."

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

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We were warned and we still negotiated a lame agreement. We are reaping what we sowed thanks to the misinformation Simon and Co. fed us.

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Further to my previous post, they do not want to share the illegal immigrants burden, but they want us to share the burden to save the other bankrupt EU members. First there was Greece, then there was Ireland, next was Portugal and now there is Greece. I hope that we will not be asked to give or guarantee more money because there is no chance of ever getting our money back. http://euobserver.com/ news in brief Ratings agency downgrades Spain Today @ 13:49 CET Ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Spain by one level to Aa2 rating for government bonds, citing the cost of restructuring banks as a factor. The downgrade comes after a similar blow against Greece earlier this week. Eurozone leaders will on Friday discuss a new pact to protect the euro. They also want to reduce the burden on those bankrupt countries http://euobserver.com/ news in brief Former Irish EU commissioner calls for bailout review Today @ 08:51 CET Former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland has urged the EU to review Ireland's bailout package. "Loans required by states following breaches of the agreed limits on budget deficits must attract some penalty... but should not amount to an unduly punitive sanction like it does now," he wrote in the FT. However, they do not want to reduce our burden of illegal immigrants.

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Nice solidarity from our EU brothers. This shows the EU and the member states for what they really are.