European Council President Donald Tusk pointed to the Priority Actions for the migrant crisis proposed by the European Commission following the informal meeting of EU leaders.
He asked EU institutions and governments to work speedily on the following issues:
– respond to the urgent needs of refugees in the region by helping the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme and other agencies with at least an additional 1 billion euro;
– assist Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and other countries in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis, including through a substantial increase of the EU’s Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian Crisis (“Madad Fund”);
– reinforce the dialogue with Turkey at all levels, including at the upcoming visit of the Turkish President (5 October), in order to strengthen our cooperation on stemming and managing the migratory flows;
– assist the Western Balkan countries in handling the refugee flows, including through pre-accession instruments, as well as ensure a speedy and solid preparation of the Western Balkans route conference (8 October);
– increase the funding of the Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing the root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa through additional contributions by Member States, and ensure an optimal preparation of the Valletta Summit (11-12 November) to achieve maximum progress;
– tackle the dramatic situation at our external borders and strengthen controls at those borders, including through additional resources for Frontex, EASO and Europol, and with personnel and equipment from Member States;
– meet requests from front-line Member States for assistance by the institutions, the agencies and other Member States in order to ensure identification, registration and fingerprinting of migrants (hotspots) and at the same time ensure relocation and returns, at the latest by November 2015;
– enhance the funding of the Emergency Fund for Asylum, Integration and Migration and the Internal Security Fund-Borders.
Hot Spots for Migrant Identification
In a press conference following the emergency summit, Tusk said that “hot spots” for the identification of refugees in Greece and Italy must start operating by the end of November.
On his part French President Francois Hollande underlined that those who are entitled to international protection and asylum should be separated from economic migrants. The latter should be deported. He also noted that the Turkish government should give Syrian refugees work permits to work in Turkey, something that is currently prohibited.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed to the importance of strengthening the external supervision of EU borders.
Funding
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker calculated the money needed to deal with the crisis, pointing out that the EC has more than doubled the resources required to tackle the refugee crisis from 4.6 bln to 9.2 bln euros.
On Thursday, the EC benchmarked:
– € 100 million more for emergency assistance for the most affected Members States
– € 600 million more for the EU agencies in 2016
– € 200 million more for the World Food Program in 2015
– € 300 million more for humanitarian aid in 2016
– more funds to stabilise our immediate neighbourhood: up to €1 billion for Turkey and € 17 million for Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Juncker added: “I cannot understand how – in time of obvious need – some Member States reduced their contributions to the World Food Programme by up to 99 per cent. I call on Member States to restore funding for food aid to the World Food Programme to the level of 2014 and to stabilise the supply of food for Syrian refugees. I also call Member States to match the money we have put for the Trust Fund for Syria (€ 500 million) and the Trust Fund for Africa (€ 1.8 billion) with the same amounts.”
