EU leaders agree migration is a pressing concern, but remain divided on action

A fishing boat motors past a navy boat carrying migrants intercepted in Italian waters arriving at Shengjin port in Albania on October 16, 2024.

Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is at the forefront of efforts to reduce irregular migration to the European Union, building a consensus on the issue with 10 like-minded countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary and Greece. But divisions remain among the bloc’s 27 countries, in particular on the controversial idea of creating return centres outside the EU.

EU leaders called Thursday for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up migrant returns on Thursday, after a summit in Brussels that crystallised a rightward shift in the bloc’s rhetoric.

The heads of the bloc’s 27 nations said that day-long talks saw “in-depth” discussions on migration – an issue that has shot up the political agenda following hard-right gains in several countries.

“The European Council calls for determined action at all levels to facilitate, increase and speed up returns from the European Union,” the leaders wrote in conclusions to their summit, asking the European Commission to submit new legislation to that effect.

New ways to prevent and counter irregular migration should also be considered, the text read, in an apparent reference to a much-discussed proposal to create return centres outside the European Union, which did not get an outright mention.

But divisions remained on the next steps, with no concrete plans laid out in the final text.

(AFP)


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