18/11/14
Accessibility tools
Service tools
Language selector
Navigation path
Left navigation
Additional tools
11 April 2011
Refugee and migration issues are high on the agenda today, when the EU’s ministers for migration and the interior meet in Luxembourg to discuss the situation in North Africa, the Greek action plan for migration and asylum, the road forward for the common European asylum policy, and other issues of common interest. EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström is there to represent the European Commission.
"I am very glad that the Council welcomes the Commission’s intention to extend the pilot project on Malta, in which we earlier has given proof of European solidarity by helping to relocate among Member States close to 300 persons who are beneficiaries of international protection", said Cecilia Malmström.
EU Member States have also agreed on the future need for support and resources to the EU border control agency Frontex, and they agreed on the need for both short term and longer term solutions in order to handle the current situation – not least by cooperation with the North African countries.
Cecilia Malmström further reported that several countries so far have said that they are willing to take in some of the few thousands of people who have escaped the violence in Libya but who cannot return to their countries of origin such as Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan. She also said that she was hoping that even more countries would show solidarity with these people in need.
Among the other issues on the agenda were the Commission's proposal for Passenger Name Records. Read the Council conclusions 
on North Africa and the press material on the first day of the Council meeting, and watch today’s two press conferences.
