European Commissioner Malmström: “The Commission will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure member states fully respect their obligations”
Brussels, 10/07/2013 (Agence Europe) –
On Tuesday 9 July, the tension mounted between European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat whose comments on refoulement of migrants who arrived from Libya on Tuesday morning provoked both anger and concern from the Swedish commissioner.
On the night of Monday and Tuesday morning, the Maltese authorities rescued three boats that had left Libya with 300 people on board. On Tuesday morning, the Maltese prime minister announced that he would be sending them back to Libya by plane.
Malmström said: “I have learnt with great concern the statements from the Maltese prime minister about the possibility to send back persons recently arrived to Malta. I would like to stress that, according to EU and international obligations, all people arriving in the EU territory are entitled to file an asylum request and to have a proper assessment of their situation”.
She added that the Commission “will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure member states fully respect their obligations in this regard”.
The Maltese prime minister subsequently toned down his remarks and indicated that Malta would apply the European Commission decisions on immigration.
Addressing parliament, he said that “we will respect the decision. We raised our voice so that we would be taken into account. The situation can no longer be tolerated”.
A few minutes earlier, however, according to AFP and before receiving the European response, the Labour Party prime minister announced that he would be sending back these illegal immigrants, with the exception of children, their parents and the physically infirm – a total of 45 people.
Maltese NGOs, members of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) alerted the European institutions in the afternoon and warned against any return of the migrants, who could face torture and ill-treatment, which would mean that Malta was contravening international law.
Malta is one of the countries that requested greater solidarity in the EU during the negotiations on the “asylum package” and obtained a programme for relocating refugees who arrived on its territory to other member states, particularly Germany.
On Tuesday, Commissioner Malmström restated her services’ willingness to provide assistance to the small island and pointed out that the Asylum Support Office, based in Valetta, could also provide support.
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The level of polarization in Malta is truly sickening.
Would love to know how much money the EU and international community are giving Malta to fulfil its international obligations vis-a-vis illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, how much every refugee costs, how many refugees are resettled elsewhere in Europe as a percentage of those staying in Malta i.e. the true situation with regard to burden sharing.
Joseph Muscat makes it sound as though we are being invaded and the numbers are well beyond our capacity. Would love to know what the true picture is.
As usual instead of discussing facts and solutions, issues in Malta are politicized.
By not respecting the rule of law, the government is putting Malta in a bad light in all sectors.
If someone would like to invest in Malta on the basis that Malta is safe for business because it applies the rule of law, then they would think twice if they see the Maltese government flouting the law this way.
Oh dear! It seems she didn’t smell the coffee. A hay fever sufferer maybe?
Dedicated to all those Maltese who “donate money for good causes”, “help their neighbours”, “rejoice during their village’s patron saint’s festa”, “feel fulfilled in carrying a Good Friday statue”…… YET support the premeditated indiscriminate PUSH BACK decision which the ECHR stopped in time.
I challenge you people to explain to your kids that pushing away genuine asylum seekers is a great thing to do for the sake of our national interest and then have the guts to watch this short video in their presence.
http://youtu.be/WfhowM00rB0
Talk is cheap.
I wonder what the PES has to say about Muscat’s behavior. Have they issued a statement yet?
She does not sound as if she is smelling coffee.
She came down on Joey like a ton of bricks and in no uncertain terms.
Smell my arse.
So Pope Francis in his 100 days as pontiff wins the man of the year award for his humility.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10169940/Pope-Francis-Man-of-the-Year-says-Vanity-Fair.html
What prize does our PM qualify for in his first 100 days in office? Scum of the world perhaps?
Joseph Muscat threatens use of veto.
Cecilia Malmstrom says the Commission “will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure member states fully respect their obligations in this regard”.
She basically told Muscat that her dick is bigger than his and she is not afraid to use it. That is what happens when you opt to use threats before diplomacy.
And Labour’s trying to depict as some major victory.
He promised policies, he had a volume packed with empty rhetoric, he had a book with vision, principles and words.
He spent over 8 million on a campaign.
Positive, inclusive, diverse, moderate, progressive, rights, minorities, communities, participation, consultation. .
Until he drove them home.
What an utter quack. He can’t even stand up for what he portrayed himself to be.
You may think that Malta has problems, but read this from today’s Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2360078/Destination-UK-How-80-000-Bulgarians-plan-to-Britain-border-controls-scrapped-months.html
No wonder so many people in the UK want to leave the EU. Enough is enough.
What about the EU member states who left the African continent divided by unrealistic straight lines in the not so distant past? One hopes that they will be shouldering their responsibilities as well.
[Daphne – They include the very same EU member state (Britain) which decreed that Malta is part of Europe despite being an island between Tunis and Tripoli and further south than the former, Dickens. So your criticism cuts both ways.]
What about the EU member states who gave the light of civilisation, technological progress, learning, the welfare state, democratic institutions and freedom of thought and expression to African countries in the not so distant past?
I am referring, of course, to the UK and Malta.
At this rate,if we decide to ever leave the EU, they will just say good riddance.
And then, for those to whom self interest comes before everything else, we will not only have to take in the migrants, we will also have to pay our way forgetting about funding or burden sharing.
“She (Malmstrom) added that the Commission “will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure member states fully respect their obligations in this regard”.
The “fly in the ointment” of that Malmstrom’s statement is that the big countries of the EU do not admit that they have any obligation to grant asylum to a proportionate number of refugees that the UNHCR and associates maroon on this tiny overpopulated island.
Please Ms Malmstrom stop treating us as credulous fools easily taken in by your gobbledygook.
Malta has one of the lowest ratios of asylum seekers to population density in Europe.
That’s one statistic the panic mongers and racists never tell you about.
The pertinent ratio is not that of asylum “seekers” to native population density. It is the ratio of disgruntled refugees forced by the big nations of the EU to confinement among an island population where they do NOT SEEK asylum, where they do NOT WANT asylum and whence they want to leave a.s.a.p.
Support should come in the form of a proper and fair burden sharing agreement with the the European Union.
Burden sharing meaning that the illegal immigrants who are ELIGIBLE for protection are distributed fairly and equally across the EU always taking into account population and size.
The ones who are not eligible should be sent back as soon as their case has been decided without delay.
Ideally the Libyans should be offered more support to protect their borders effectively.
[Daphne – I trust you do realise that this probably means Malta will have MORE asylum seekers settled here rather than LESS. The trouble with your reasoning, Chris (and so many others share it) is that you fail to realise that immigration into Europe does not happen only happen through Malta via Europe. If you want other European states to take Malta’s African immigrants, then Malta will have to take other states’ Albanians, Russians, Moldovans, Chinese, Africans, Iraqis, Iranians, Kurds…I don’t think you fully understand the scale of it.]
Looks like the only nitwit who hasn’t smelt the coffee is our prime minister.
Instead of making everyone wash their mouth out with lye soap like a sadistic and abusive guardian because someone foolishly signed some treaties without reading the fine print how about these EU bureaucrats coming up with a solution that will take care of the problem without causing a public upheaval on a tiny island and other EU nations and at the same time seriously helping these Africans?
Amend signed treaties, nothing is written in stone and given by God. All EU nations should agree to create order out of chaos, and do it now, not tomorrow.
Not all of Africa is a war zone and by sending migrants back the message will get out that it is useless to pay human traffickers and risking life on the sea.
EU run safe havens can be established on the African continent where would be migrants can live and be vetted to legally come to EU nations than want or need immigrants, in the quantity they require.
A coalition of EU nation naval forces with satellite reconnaissance can help ensure fewer mother ships with dinghies
leave the African coast, and if they succeed, they are swiftly sent back.
To me letting this illegal migrant invasion take place is nothing more than purposefully turning a blind eye form of negligence because it suits an unsavory hidden agenda that the EU bigwigs have for social re-engineering in Europe and for destroying European nationalism that no one voted for.
Sewwa jekk ha id-decisjoni Joseph Muscat u sew jekk tawh il-parir biex l’emigranti jintbaghtu lura kullhadd kellu jibla lura dak li qal.
Joseph Muscat ghandu joqoghd ferm attent ghax fejn jidhlu materji li ghandha x’taqsam l-Ewropa mhux il-Prim Ministru jew il-Gvern jikmanda izda l-Ewropa.
Joseph ghandu joqoghd ferm attent ghax l-Ewropa taf x’tip ta’ propaganda sabiex Malta ma ssirx membru allura ma nafx kemm tikkarkulah meta hu imur kontra ir=regoli u l-ligijiet tal-Ewropa.
Il-Partit Laburista ghalekk kien kontra l-Ewropa biex fil-pajjiz jibqa jaghmel li jrid hu u li jaqbillu. Izda issa ma jistghax ,u anqas jista’ jindahal lil impjegati tal-Gvern biex isiru certi favuri kontra l-ligi ghax l-impjegat ghandu akkontabilita’ u dover lejn il-Gvern li huwa Ewropej u jekk l’impjegat ma jobdix lil xi membru tal-Gvern ghax ikun qed igielu jaghmel xi haga kontra l-ligi ghandu lil Ewropa tiddefendih u hadd ma jista’ jkeccih jew jikkastigah bhal ma kien isir fi zmien Mintoff u l-Gernijiet tal-Labour ghax l-Ewropa hija serja mhux bhal tal-Labour li dejjem iridu jaghmlu dak li jaqbell lilhom u mhux dak li jaqbel ghal pajjiz..
You know, just a few months ago during the election campaign, Dr Gonzi continually warned that when you’re Prime Minister you wouldn’t be able to please everyone all at once.
Whenever he said this I always got the feeling that he meant this as a personal message to Dr Muscat not from an opponent but from a wise friend.
It seems that Dr Muscat failed to understand this message and toddled on by promising everything to everyone. In the end he managed to do wonders. He actually managed to put the liberals, or at least some of them, and the extreme rightists in the same basket. Two very opposing groups that never sit at the same table.
This brings me to this whole affair. Dr Muscat faced his first true challenge of his premiership. Was he going to please the liberals or was he going to please the extreme right?
After all both groups voted for him. He chose to please the latter by deciding to send the migrants back from where they came from. And he wasn’t bluffing! He was actually going through with it. He said so himself. Probably, he thought he had already pleased the liberals enough by holding soirees for gays and lesbians and giving transgender people the right to marry.
But in the end after seeing the uproar of the liberals and all the legal complications of his decision, he backtracked and reversed his decision. Leaving the extreme rightists with an unsatisfied raging stiffie (excuse the vulgar expression but it’s the best way I can describe it) and the liberals in serious doubt about the liberal credentials of his government.
So not only didn’t he manage to please everyone. But he actually managed to please no one in the most spectacular of fashion!
Interpretation of Malmstrom’s promise:
“The European Commission will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure the SMALL member states fully respect their obligations” as dictated by the bigger states.
That was not a promise of assistance elicited by Joseph Muscat. It was a menacing threat from Malmstrom against Muscat and Malta.