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7 October 2023,
Thessaloniki Greece
We, the Ministers of Interior,
Migration and Asylum of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, and Spain, on the
occasion of the Sixth Ministerial Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece on 7
October 2023, have concluded the following elements in relation to the
internal and external dimensions of the European migration policy, as part of
a holistic approach for an effective asylum and migration management:
1. We need to step up our common
efforts in relation to the external dimension of migration management as an
integral part of a holistic approach. Loss of life at sea and the abuse of
migrants by smugglers can be averted through the prevention of irregular
departures. We therefore call on the Commission to negotiate new strategic
partnerships and mutually beneficial arrangements with key third countries of
origin and transit based on mutual trust and a whole of route approach.
2. We call on the European
Commission to guarantee the full implementation of existing partnerships and
arrangements with third countries, with a view to stemming irregular
departures, dismantling smuggling networks, resolutely fighting organized
crime and increasing the rate of returns. Should said partnerships and
arrangements need revitalization, or new ones to be concluded we need to act
swiftly in this direction, in order to guarantee effective migration
management.
3. We reaffirm our joint
commitment to protect the external borders of the European Union, in compliance
with applicable international law, EU principles and values, and the
protection of fundamental rights. Furthermore, our commitment towards human
rights and fundamental freedoms should not be abused of by smugglers or human
traffickers. Search and rescue operations are conducted to provide assistance
to any vessel or person in distress at sea, in accordance with international
law, and should not be misused in such a way as to induce irregular migration
or smuggling of migrants, thereby leading to the abuse of the Common European
Asylum System.
4. We reaffirm the role of
FRONTEX in assisting Member States at the external borders with their efforts
towards effective border management, including through the use of
pre-frontier aerial surveillance, and the fight against migrant smuggling,
also in third countries, especially those of last departure. We thus call on
the European Commission to allocate sufficient resources to FRONTEX and to
finalize agreements with key third countries in order to achieve the full
potential of the Agency’s mandate. We also underline the role of Europol
against migrant smuggling and call to the swift launch of two operational
task forces for the central Mediterranean and the eastern Mediterranean.
5. We condemn any attempt and
stress anew the need to collectively counter instrumentalization tactics and
hybrid threats by third countries or non-State actors and to make our
external borders resilient, including the Green Line in the case of Cyprus
which must be adequately addressed, despite the fact that the “Green Line”
does not constitute a border.
6. We reiterate our firm
position that the responsibilities shouldered by the MED5 countries have to
be offset through adequate, tangible and efficient solidarity measures. The
balance between responsibility and solidarity is a prerequisite for effective
migration management within the Union.
7. We stress the need to
support our neighbours in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in their efforts
to address irregular migratory flows, including by way of provision of
equipment, training, capacity building and other forms of cooperation. We
call upon the European Commission to make available all funding necessary to
manage migration, including as part of the MFF review.
8. We are committed to
addressing the root causes of migration. In this light, we support the
promotion of legal pathways in order to reduce irregular migration and
strengthen orderly and safe migration, to the benefit of all parties
involved, including our MENA and Atlantic neighbour states and Turkey, in
particular, as well as Sub-Saharan countries.
9. We call for innovative and
effective solutions to limit primary movements and remove incentives for
people to come irregularly to the Union.
10. We emphasize the importance
of returns as a key pillar of the Union’s migration policy, including
assisted voluntary returns. We reiterate the need to step up our efforts on
returning third country nationals who have no legal right to remain in the
Union. We call upon the Commission to take reinforced action to ensure that
third countries comply with their legal or agreed readmission and return
commitments.
11. We call for the swift
conclusions of the negotiations on the Pact on Migration and Asylum. The end
result should be an efficient and robust system that works in practice and is
able to withstand challenging situations.
(MKy)
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