Politics
(Brussels) Today, a few days before the European Council, the EU Commission published a “Notice” that describes the last three years of work at the European Agenda on Migration, launched in May 2015. “Managing migration better in all aspects” is the title of the document, which contains figures and explanations about the way things have worked out so far, the legal measures in the pipeline, and the matters being discussed by the Heads of State and Government. It says for instance that until 2014 the EU used to have less than three hundred people checking its coasts and borders, a number that has now risen to the current 1,300 Frontex guards. Investments in border control amounted to 2.3 billion euros from 2006 to 2013, they became 4.3 from 2014 to 2020, and are expected to rise up to 18.3 in the EU’s next budget. From 2006 to today, investments in migration have tripled (from 2.2 to 6.8 billion euros). Five legal measures about the upgrading of the common asylum system are “well into negotiations” among the EU states; two, the review of the Dublin system and the asylum procedures, are still at a deadlock, instead. “Migration is back on the headlines: I feel encouraged by this, because it means that there’s more political will to take action and reach agreement on a number of important issues that will define our future migration policy”, migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos stated today, then he urged the European leaders to “reach agreement on all the dimensions of a stronger common European asylum system by the end of the year”.
