Mogherini underlined the work the EU is already doing to deal with the challenges of migration: since 2015, European vessels working within Operation Sophia have saved more than 400,000 people in the Mediterranean. In Turkey, in Lebanon, and Jordan, the EU is helping over half a million Syrian children go back to school.

She rejected the idea suggested by some observers that migration is a fight between the North and the South, between richer countries and developing ones. “We do not believe in this. We, in the European Union, believe in partnerships. We believe we are together in this and that only together we can give real answers. There is no clash between the North and the South. In fact there is massive room for win-win solutions.”

“This is why we need a Global Compact. And in this field, our European Union is testing new tools and a whole new approach, finally. This is the core idea behind our new Partnership Frameworks of Migration Compacts as we have called them. From security to infrastructures, our priorities are set together with each of our partners, be them countries of origin or transit.”

She pointed to the newly-announced European External Investment Plan, which aims to bring more private investments into fragile areas of the EU’s neighbourhood and Africa. It aims to mobilise up to EUR 44 billion euros to bring private investments in Africa and in the Mediterranean. And she pledged that the EU experience would be fed into a new Global Compact, which should draw on the knowledge of UN agencies, as well as the private sector, civil society, diaspora communities and migrants’ organisations.(EU Neighbourhood Info)