EU home affairs ministers discussed a temporary disembarkation scheme for the Mediterranean

Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU and ministers from several EU Member States and the Schengen associated countries alongside the European Commission have discussed the need to set up a more predictable and efficient temporary solidarity mechanism to ensure the swift and dignified disembarkation of migrants rescued at sea.

The new mechanism aims at improving the current arrangements where the Commission has to seek willing recipients for the disembarked asylum seekers one vessel at a time.

"There is a lot of understanding among Member States that instead of continuous ad hoc efforts we need more robust arrangements to follow up on search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. In order to succeed, we need as many Member States as possible to participate and to share responsibility on a voluntary basis. The Presidency will continue working on this. This work does not diminish the fact that we still need a reform of the Common European Asylum System" Finnish Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo said.

Discussion on the future of the European Migration and Asylum Policy continues on Thursday.

The ministers and Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos discussed the Mediterranean situation over an informal dinner on 17 July, ahead of the informal ministerial meeting on justice and home affairs.

Inquiries

Director General Laura Yli-Vakkuri, Ministry of the Interior of Finland, tel. +358 40 720 22 16