A report of the European Parliament, adopted at parliamentary committee level on Thursday morning, seeks to ease the burden on the front-line EU member states of the migration inflow and share it on a European scheme, its Rapporteur Cecilia Wikstrom has said.
Wikstrom (ALDE) was speaking to Cypriot journalists in the context of a seminar organised in Brussels by the European Parliament and the European Commission.
“What we need to do is to ease the burden which rests on the front-line member states, share the burden on a European scheme,” she said, adding that “we need to shoulder the challenges side by side.”
While now countries such as Italy and Greece are dealing with an influx of migrants, if something happens in the Middle East it will be Cyprus, she said, adding that on the eastern borders it will be Lithuania or Estonia.
So, she pointed out, “we are easing the burden on the front-line member state and a permanent mechanism to relocate people to countries that have received the least.”
The report puts down in writing the views of the overwhelming majority of MEPs on the reform of the Dublin regulation. A regulation which, according to the Swedish MEP was prepared to deal with the ‘good’ times in sense of migrant inflows and was not even applied.
Once the European Commission released its legislative proposal to the Council and the European Parliament, the directly elected institution started work by way of the report drafted by Wikstrom in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, known as LIBE.
“We are ready, we have worked very hard,” the Rapporteur told the journalists, adding that this will be the “most comprehensive legislative proposal so far during this mandate.”
However, replying to a question as to when she believes it is likely for the process to be complete and the legislation to pass at a European level she replied that it might be as late as spring 2019 before the European elections, pointing the finger at a Council which has so far been too reluctant to tackle the issue.
Asked what happens with the countries which have said they will not accept migrants on their territory such as Hungary and Slovakia, she replied that the EU Court’s ruling was crystal clear and that is the Council’s problem now.
Referring to a recent poll, she noted that “70% of European citizens are asking us to deliver in the field of asylum and migration, combatting terrorism and putting together policies on climate change,” adding that “I cannot understand how member states dare not even take a position.”
European Commissioner responsible for migration Dimitris Avramopoulos welcomed the adoption of Wikstrom`s report on Twitter. “Time for co-legislators to complete reform of Common European Asylum System,” he wrote.