EU leaders seal migration deal after marathon talks
BRUSSELS: EU leaders clinched a hard-won migration deal during all- night talks yesterday that Italy's hardline new premier said meant his country was ‘ no longer alone' in shouldering the responsibility for migrants.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who heads a month- old anti-immigration government, had vetoed joint conclusions for the entire agenda of the summit in Brussels until his demands were finally met before dawn.
Italy has turned away a series of migrant boats in recent weeks, sparking a fresh political row three years after the bloc faced its biggest ever migration crisis.
The 28 leaders agreed to consider set t ing up ' d isembarkation platforms' outside the bloc, most likely in north Africa, in a bid to discourage migrants boarding EU-bound smuggler boats.
Member countries could also set up migrant processing centres – but only on a voluntary basis – to determine whether they returned home as economic migrants or admitted as refugees in willing states.
The leaders also of fered a concession to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces a rebellion from within her own coal ition government, with moves to stop migrants registered in Italy and other EU countries from moving to Germany.
Merkel welcomed the deal, but acknowledged the hard work needed with some hard choices left for later.
“I am optimistic after today that we can now really continue to work, although we have a lot to do, even bridging the different views,” Merkel said.
The summit conclusions called on member countries to take 'all necessary' steps to stop migrants initially arriving in countries
I am optimistic after today that we can now really continue to work, although we have a lot to do, even bridging the different views.
such as Italy and Greece from moving on to Germany.
After allowing more than one mil lion asylum seekers into Germany since 2015, Merkel faces an end- of- month deadline from her own interior minister to seal pacts to curb so- called secondary migration.
EU President Donald Tusk issued a fresh warning on the need for action on migration to stave off rising populism and authoritarianism, saying that “the stakes are high and time is short”.
“Some may think I am too tough in my proposals on migration, but trust me, if we don't agree on them, then you'll see some really tough proposals from some really tough guys,” the former Polish premier added.
But the leaders failed to agree on long- stalled plans to overhaul the bloc's asylum rules, which say that migrants must be dealt with by the first country in which they arrive.
Brexit was meanwhile largely relegated to the sidelines of this summit, with British Prime Minister Theresa May set to update leaders after admitting the need to make ' faster' progress as she arrived at the venue.
EU leaders a re expected yesterday to say that talks, which have stalled on the issue of the Irish border, are running out of time to get a deal.
Angela Merkel, German Chancellor