Former prime ministers, foreign ministers and Business leaders have written to EU Heads of Government in advance of a crucial summit in Brussels today (Thursday). They call for immediate action in the Mediterranean, where more than a thousand people have lost their lives in the past month alone.
Prominent Europeans call for immediate action in the Mediterranean
Migration is a complex problem that needs a comprehensive and long-term approach, but the first priority for European leaders must be to stop the death toll that is a stain on the conscience of our continent. The events of recent weeks in the Mediterranean show that stopping search and rescue has not dissuaded migrants, but vastly increased the numbers of deaths. According to UNHCR, over 1,600 migrants have died in 2015 while trying to make the crossing.
We call on the EU Heads of State and Government to go beyond the ten-point plan issued earlier this week in immediately restoring an expansive search and rescue operation in Mediterranean waters, with a mandate and level of funding that match the humanitarian emergency that confronts us.
The wave of migration from North African shores is fuelled by turmoil and conflict across the Middle East and parts of Africa, and amplified by the breakdown of state authority in Libya. The EU is rightly committed to do what it can to help reverse these developments, but there will be no easy or short-term solution. In the meantime, the EU must accept that attempts at migration will continue on a large scale and develop a range of measures that reflect our values and responsibilities, including:
Restore and expand search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean with the requisite mandate and level of funding. Set up a system of relocation within the EU to reduce the weight of the burden falling on a handful of member states. Promote and fund the temporary accommodation of refugees outside the EU through the construction of safe and decent facilities in third countries. Substantially increase the UNHCR quota system, to be applied on an equitable basis. Launch a cooperative law enforcement effort to break trafficking networks, confiscate or destroy their assets and prosecute those involved.
Measures such as these are necessary to ensure that the EU’s approach to the complex challenge of migration is sustainable, equitable and humane. However the starting point of the European response to the recent surge in migrant deaths must be a recognition that we cannot allow such terrible events to afflict those trying to reach our shores.
The following people have signed the letter:
Chris Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University; former EU Commissioner
George Soros, Founder & Chairman, Open Society Foundations
Massimo D’Alema, former Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister, Italy
Carl Bildt, former Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister, Sweden
John Bruton, former Taoiseach, Ireland
Bernard Kouchner, former Foreign Minister, France
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council
Emma Bonino, former Foreign Minister, Italy
Ana Palacio, Member of the Council of State and former Foreign Minister, Spain
Teresa Gouveia, former Foreign Minister, Portugal
Andrzej Olechowski, former Foreign Minister, Poland
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia
Senem Aydin, Jean Monnet Chair, Istanbul Bilgi University
Roland Berger, Founder, Roland Berger Foundation
Stine Bosse, Chair of the Board, Bank
Nordik GroupGunilla Carlsson, former International Development Minister, Sweden
Tibor Dessewffy, President, Demos Hungary
Andrew Duff, former Member of the European Parliament
Tanja Fajon, Member of the European Parliament
Karin Forseke, Alliance Trust Plc
Lykke Friis, Prorector, University of Copenhagen; former Minister for Climate and Energy, Denmark
Charles Grant, Director, Centre for European Reform
Dzema Grozdanova, Chair of the Foreign Policy Committee, Bulgarian Parliament
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, CEO & President, International Crisis Group
Ulrike Guérot, Founder & Director, European Democracy Lab
Heidi Hautala, Member of the European Parliament; former Minister for International Development, Finland
Danuta Huebner, Member of the European Parliament
Jaakko Iloniemi, former Ambassador, Finland
Caio Koch-Weser, Vice-Chiarman, Deutsche Bank Group
Bassma Kodmani, Executive Director, Arab Reform Initiative
David Koranyi, Director, Eurasian Energy Futures, Atlantic Council
Ivan Krastev, Chair of Board, Centre for Liberal Strategies
Mark Leonard, Director, European Council on Foreign Relations
Sonja Licht, President, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence
Irene Lozano, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Joseph Misfud, Director of the London Academy of Diplomacy
Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
Hedvig Morvai, Executive Director, European Fund for the Balkans
Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford
Daithi O’Ceallaigh, former Ambassador, Ireland
Dick Oosting, CEO, European Council on Foreign Relations
Mabel van Oranje, Chair of Girls Not Brides – The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage
Zaneta Ozolina, Professor of International Relations, University of Latvia
Tobias Raffel, Member of the Executive Board, Roland Berger Foundation
Albert Rohan, former Ambassador, Austria
Daniel Sachs, CEO, Proventus
Aleksander Smolar, Chair of the Board, Stefan Batory Foundation
Volker Stanzel, former Ambassador, Germany
Ion Sturza, Founder & Chairman, Fribourg Capital
Hannes Swoboda, former Member of the European Parliament
Nathalie Tocci, Deputy Director, Istituto Affari Internazional
Loukas Tsoukalis, Professor, University of Athens and President, ELIAMEP
Andre Wilkens, Author
Stelios Zavvos, Chair of Solidarity Now and Founder & CEO, Zeus Capital Managers
Download Joint Statement by NRC and the Norwegian Shipowners Association - January 2015
Download factsheet about the risks of crossing the Mediterranean