EU approves military action against people smugglers operating in Mediterranean
EU approves military action against people smugglers operating in Mediterranean
European Union members were on a collision course on Monday over proposals to distribute asylum-seekers across the continent, a plan backed by safe-haven Germany but resisted by several ex-Communist states in the east.
A draft agreement to be discussed by interior ministers in Brussels later on Monday would see them agree to a proposal from the EU executive to relocate 120,000 of the most deserving cases around the bloc — but leave the way in which to distribute them for discussion over the next few weeks.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, proposed national quotas for EU states to take people in from over-burdened frontline states.
But that is opposed by some ex-Communist eastern states, notably Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary — even though the latter would benefit from the executive’s plan. They argue that quotas would draw more migrants to Europe and disrupt their societies, which have not been used to large-scale immigration.
“The quota system isn’t the solution,” Slovak interior minister Robert Kalinak said as he arrived for the meeting.
Meanwhile, EU member states approved plans for military action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean, seizing and if necessary destroying boats to break up the networks operating out of Libya. “This important transition will enable the EU naval operation against human smugglers and traffickers in the Mediterranean to conduct boarding, search, seizure and diversion (of vessels),” the EU’s council of ministers said in a statement. The EU launched a first, intelligence gathering phase of its EU NavFor Med operation in July and with that objective met, ministers agreed it was time to move on to the next step, the statement added.
Many member states were reluctant to step up action against the traffickers for fear of getting embroiled in Libya.
