“The upcoming informal Summit we will have in Malta starting Friday will be for us I believe an opportunity to show that an efficient and at the same time human management of migration is possible – and is a must,” said the EU High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini in her opening remarks at the debate on managing migration along the Central Mediterranean route at the European Parliament yesterday.

“We all need to do more. In the European Union, in the spirit of solidarity among Europeans, and also with our partners, that also have to take some of the ownership of the management of this problem. When we see people dying in the desert or close to the Libyan coast, we have to discuss and help our partners to do their part to save lives and to make sure that the protection of human beings and their human rights is fully taken on board. We all need to do more, first to end the suffering and to better manage human mobility,” the High Representative told MEPs.

The High Representative described three proposals that will be discussed at the Malta Summit on Friday:

• Increase the training of the Libyan coast guard
• Step up our efforts on the Southern borders of Libya
• Increase EU support to the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR

Mogherini pointed out that the EU’s work with Libya “goes far beyond the issue of managing migration” and that the key element of the EU’s work is supporting peace and reconciliation in Libya. “But while we keep working to reach a political solution for Libya, there is much we can do in the meantime. Working with the Libyan coast guard and navy, working with the mayors and the local authorities, working with Libya’s neighbours, not only east and west, but also south, as a Libyan neighbour ourselves, because the European Union is a neighbour to Libya.”

Read more

Remarks by Mogherini 

Video 

EEAS – Libya

EU-Libya relations

EU Neighbours South – Libya

EU Delegation to Libya – website and Facebook page