Spain, Greece and Italy urge the EU to finalize the new migration pact “immediately”

Spain, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta demanded this Saturday in Thessaloniki (northern Greece) the “immediate completion” of the negotiations for the new European Pact on Migration and Asylum and they asked the European Comission (EC) stronger measures to reduce irregular migration.

“The European Union has to move quickly towards the creation of a strong and effective system to manage the migration challenge, capable of providing realistic and sustainable solutions,” states the final declaration of the sixth edition of the “Med5” summit.″ in which the ministers of the Interior or Migration of these five countries.

The document urges the European Comission “to negotiate new strategic partnerships and mutually beneficial agreements with key third countries of origin and transit (of migrants)” and to guarantee the application of existing agreements with non-EU countries.

So far this year, some 194,000 immigrants and refugees has arrived Spain, Italy, malt, Greece and Cyprus by sea, compared to the 112,000 that arrived in the same period last year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stressed that, although there is currently good cooperation between Spain and Moroccoin recent weeks there has been a large increase in migratory flows to the Canary Islands from Senegal, the document states.

For his part, his Italian counterpart, Matteo Piantedosi, reported that the majority of migrants arriving in Italy come from Tunisia, which has become a transit country for all of West Africa and the Sahel.

In their joint declaration, the five Mediterranean countries highlight the need to intensify efforts to increase returns to their countries of origin of migrantswhose asylum application has been rejected.

The conference comes a day after Poland and Hungary’s opposition to the EU pact European Union (EU) on migration and asylum prevented the approval of a final declaration on migration supported by all Member States at the informal summit in Granada (southern Spain).

Last Wednesday, the countries of the European Union reached an agreement by qualified majority on the Crisis Regulation, the last piece of the European Migration Pact and Asylum that the States had not yet agreed upon.

However, it will now be necessary to negotiate with the European Parliament to achieve a definitive agreement on the immigration legislative package so that it is adopted and can come into force.

With information from EFE