European Commission
Malmström

I’ve just had a meeting with Amnesty International and several human rights organisations from Israel. They wanted to discuss the severe situation for migrants in the Sinai Peninsula. It is an issue that I brought up with various ministers in Cairo when I was there to visit last year, but since then the situation has gotten worse. It’s about migrants and refugees, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, who try to get through the Sinai desert in search of asylum in Israel. Most people fall prey to smugglers who run a particuarly obnoxious game in Sinai, charging migrants for letting them through and then holding them hostage and demanding a ransom from them or their families. It involves quite a lot of money and many of the refugees testify about horrific torture, rape and various forms of degrading treatment. Obviously this can not continue. Israel and Egypt must cooperate in cracking down on this disgusting business.

And even for the refugees who do not fall into the hands of these violent smugglers, the situation is very difficult. They have no opportunity to seek asylum in Egypt. Asylum policy as such does not exist and the only possibility is to seek shelter with the UNHCR. There are several cases where the military has fired on the refugees.

The possibility of a legally secure asylum management in Israel is also very scarce. Sudanese and Eritreans get a temporary permit to stay in Israel, however, without going through any form of asylum procedure first, and without getting the right to medical care or to work. The new law, the Anti-infiltration Law, which was passed in February this year, makes it possible for the Israeli authorities to immediately detain anyone who illegally enters Israeli territory, often indefinitely, and in many cases for life. In addition, Israel is now building a long fence along the border between Israel and Egypt. It is important that, despite this, there will be possibilities for people to seek asylum in the country.

For over a year now I’ve been trying to get the Egyptians interested in a Mobility Partnership where we discuss migration, asylum, visa issues, etc. in a broad sense. We are now very close to achieving such an Partnership with Tunisia. From Egypt’s side, it has so far been turned down. We’ll see what happens after the presidential elections in June.

Like other countries across North Africa, Morocco was also affected by the Arab spring. However, it took a different route than Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The King has managed to stay, making an early declaration of his intention to implement a number of democratic reforms. One part of this was to call for a new election, which was held last Friday. As the moderate Islamist PJD party got the majority of the votes, the King will now appoint a Prime Minister from that party. According to observers, it seems to have been a calm and peaceful election, but there was reportedly a low turnout of 45.4%. But this, after all, is a slight increase since the last election four years ago. Slowly but surely, it looks like there is more and more democratic progress in Morocco.

Today, also the Egyptians go to the polls. I was in Egypt last Spring when they had just voted for the Constitutional amendments which required new elections. The optimistic mood for change which I encountered back then has unfortunately declined. I now follow with concern developments following the recent unrest.

At the same time, in another part of Africa, environment and climate Ministers are meeting in Durban to discuss the continuation of the International Climate Agreement, which expires in 2012. In the wake of the economic crisis and now with the current debt crisis, actions for climate change have been left behind. The EU continues to push for an increase in countries’ commitment, but unfortunately, even efforts in Europe have slowed down. It is worrying that countries do not realize that the climate investments we make today will yield significant gains in the future.

I am now on my way to Serbia to speak at a conference on organised crime in the Western Balkans. I will also meet with the President and the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers to discuss cooperation on Home Affairs. Two burning topics for the Western Balkans are the treatment of Roma, and combating human trafficking, and I will highlight these questions in my conversations with the Ministers. I will also visit a refugee facility for Roma and some Red Cross initiatives in the fight against trafficking tomorrow.  Serbia is also awaiting the EU summit on 9 December, where the Commission has proposed that Serbia should be granted candidate status.  It is now the Member States that will make the decision.

Today we had a long Commission meeting where we discussed a package of reforms for growth. The package contains proposals to tighten economic and budgetary surveillance with, for example, the so called “six-pack“. The basis for the discussion, among other things, was the Annual Growth Survey.

The proposal on Stability Bonds was one of the items on the agenda. It has been discussed since the late 90’s, as a tool to improve the integration Eurozone economies, which would serve to share the costs and risks among the Eurozone members. It would be a joint European effort to curb the crisis and promote growth. However, there are risks of moral hazard, which means that incentives for budgetary discipline are likely to deteriorate. Therefore, it must be combined with various forms of supervision and control. The Commission invites the Member States, academics, market participants and the public to have their say on the design of such a proposal. You can submit comments and suggestions on the Stability Bonds here. The Financial Times welcomed the proposal today. In other FT news, the Swedish Minister of Finance, Mr Borg, was appointed Europe’s best finance minister. You just have to congratulate him.

I am following with concern the recent developments in Egypt. The military force being used against the demonstrators and the worry that they will “hijack” the Egyptian people’s revolution is deeply troubling. Democratic transition takes time, but I sincerely hope that the recent turmoil will cease and that elections can be held on November 28 as planned. But at the same time, it is encouraging to see the leaders of Tunisia and Libya forming new governments.

I am following the developments in Libya with great interest. At the moment, it is not yet clear if Gaddafi, one of the cruelest dictators in the world, has been overthrown, but it does look like his days in power are numbered. Gaddafi and his government must now be held accountable for what he has done to his own people during the 42 years his terror regime has held on to the power. EU has assisted the Libyan people with humanitarian aid during the spring, you can read more about the assistance here. As with Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year, the EU also stands ready to assist Libya with it’s democratic transition. The road to democracy after Gaddafi will be long, but a democratic Libya would be a tremendous success, not only for the Libyan people, but for the whole region.

The debate in Strasbourg on migration flows continued for several hours on Monday night and focused mainly on the situation in Lampedusa and Malta and on solidarity.

The war in Libya is causing big migration flows, around 400 000 persons have now left the country. Most of them are guest workers from Tunisia and Egypt, but some are also third country nationals from up to 30 different countries. Egypt and Tunisia have done a heroic effort in taking care of these people. More than 100 000 have also been transported to their home countries with the help of the EU and Member States.

But there is still a small group of people, a few thousand, who cannot return to their home countries Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. We must all take our humanitarian responsibility and give them protection in Europe.

In Lampedusa there are still Tunisians arriving. Sources tell us that they are mainly young unemployed men and Tunisian citizens. A few people from Libya have also arrived in Italy and Malta and asked for asylum.

Altogether there are about 2000 people that are in the need of international protection and have requested asylum in the EU, so far.

There is a lot of talk about activating the temporary protection directive. The directive was a response to the situation in Kosovo in the late 90s, but is has so far not been used. The directive can be used if there is a “mass influx of displaced persons from third countries who are unable to return to their country of origin”. They could then be granted temporary protection without individual assessments. To activate the directive the Commission must propose it and there must be a qualified majority of member states in favour of activating it.

At this point we cannot see a mass influx of migrants to Europe even though some of our member states are under severe pressure. The temporary mechanism is one tool that could be used in the future, if necessary, but we have not yet reached that situation.

The Ministers of Internal Affairs and Migration are meeting on Monday next week to discuss the short- and long-term cooperation with North Africa in the area of migration, and the migratory situation in Member States. The issue of solidarity between Member States will probably also be on the agenda.

In Egypt last Sunday a big majority voted in favour of the constitutional amendments, which means that they are now preparing for the upcoming elections. I’m going to Egypt this afternoon together with the Hungarian Presidency, Foreign Minister János Martonyi, to meet with politicians and organisations and to learn more about the current situation.

We will have a discussion about the long term cooperation concerning migration, labour migration, visa, border control etc. Even if there will be new cooperation partners in Egypt after the election it’s important to see, already at this early stage, how the EU can assist the country in its transition.

I’m also meeting with UNHCR and IOM about the situation in the refugee camps and to see how the EU can help. Next week I’m also planning on going to Tunisia.

This morning I met with the head of the Åland government, Viveka Eriksson, and I also had a long meeting with the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. North Africa and the recent developments were of course dicussed.