The heads of state and government of the 27 member states of the European Union agreed on Thursday evening to take a series of measures to reduce the number of illegal migrants arriving in Europe.

“We will act to strengthen our external borders and prevent illegal migration,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after an informal summit in Brussels early Friday morning.

The agreed measures include initiatives to strengthen the security infrastructure of Bulgaria’s border with Turkey, such as the installation of cameras and the construction of outposts.

According to Ms von der Leyen, EU member states are also seeking to increase the mutual recognition of deportation decisions.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called important the cooperation of the EU member states in matters of migration, “in matters of control of external borders, improvement of infrastructure, cooperation with countries of origin and transit (migrants)”.

The summit, which was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a guest, was initially convened because of a surge in asylum applications and the arrival of illegal migrants in EU countries, prompting several governments to call for tougher measures.

According to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX), authorities recorded a 64% increase in illegal border crossings in 2022 compared to the previous year. At the same time, the number of asylum applications increased by almost 50%.

In addition, about 4 million refugees from Ukraine found refuge in EU member states.

Before the summit, Austrian Chancellor Karl Neuhammer called for 2 billion euros from the EU budget to finance a border fence on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. This expense is not explicitly mentioned in the text of the conclusions of the session.

An agreement to take tougher measures has been announced, while a broader review of EU immigration and asylum rules is still under consideration.

Mitsotakis intervention

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the importance of combating illegal trafficking networks in his speech, recalling the recent tragic incident off the coast of Leros.

He also stressed that voluntary resettlement is ineffective, while highlighting the need to increase financial assistance to frontline countries by making funds flexible so they can be used for migration and cohesion funds, according to government sources.

“More European funds need to be spent on border security,” the Greek Prime Minister said during a meeting of heads of state and government in the Belgian capital.

What else was discussed?

At the informal summit, Member States generally accepted the Commission’s proposal to make green technology subsidies more flexible to help European industry compete with US and Chinese industries.

As stated in the text of the conclusions, Member States will be able to offer tax incentives to sectors of strategic importance.

Additional amounts will be made available from pre-existing EU funds to support certain sectors while ensuring that competition is not distorted. There is no mention of issuing new general debt.

EU leaders also agreed that more needs to be done to combat the shortage of skilled labor and ensure the supply of important raw materials. This issue will be discussed in more detail at the next summit in March.

In the text of the conclusions, the European Council also calls on Serbia and Kosovo to normalize their relations after recent tensions.

Regarding the war in Ukraine, the summit agreed to “strengthen” sanctions against Russia and tougher measures to prevent circumvention, while expressing support for efforts to “hold all” perpetrators of war crimes to account. In addition, the European Council “reiterates that the future of Ukraine is in the European Union.”

It is noted that the EU approved the allocation of the seventh tranche in the amount of 500 million euros for the provision of military assistance to Ukraine, as well as the training of 30,000 Ukrainian military during 2023.

The EU and its member states have provided almost 12 billion euros in military aid to Kiev since the outbreak of the war in February 2022, the text summarizes, while reaffirming a commitment to maintain Kiev’s “macroeconomic stability” and post-war reconstruction projects. With regard to the latter, it is noted that procedures are ongoing with the use of Russian resources transferred under its jurisdiction.

Source: APE-ME, ERT.