The minister has also opted to strengthen the foreign dimension and obtain financial support to promote cooperation
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has demanded this Saturday from the EU a solidarity mechanism between member states on migration that is not like the current one, “too slow, too selective and with too few results, as well as not being very predictable”.
This was stated in the framework of the meeting that he held in Valletta (Malta) with his MED5 counterparts, the group made up of Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Spain, where he stressed that the Spanish Government “is willing to to continue demanding progress in terms of relocation” and to work so that in the future Pact on Migration and Asylum there is a “balance” between the mechanisms of solidarity and those of responsibility.
“We aspire to reach an agreement, but not any agreement is valid. It is necessary that the future Pact, without being perfect, be balanced and give satisfactory responses to national interests and problems but, above all, European ones”, he indicated in reference to the need to achieve this balance, as detailed by the Interior in a release.
The minister has also opted to strengthen the foreign dimension and obtain financial support to promote cooperation. “The opening of the relationship with third countries to other matters of common interest such as police cooperation in the fight against organized crime, civil protection or road safety is a formula that has worked for Spain, revitalizing bilateral relations with positive effects on the prevention of illegal immigration”, he pointed out.
Likewise, it has put as a reference “the notable reduction in the numbers of irregular arrivals in Spain”which accumulate this year a decrease of 56.9 percent, which consolidates the downward trend experienced in 2022, the year that closed with a reduction of 25.6 percent.
Along this line of cooperation, it has considered that the future solidarity mechanism included in the Migration and Asylum Pact may constitute “a good opportunity to get funding through additional channels” to third countries.
Grande-Marlaska has also informed her MED5 counterparts that Spain has forwarded to the Commission a document with various possibilities of support and financing for third countries, ranging from the air and sea patrol they carry out, to training activities, delivery of equipment and new infrastructures.
Meeting with the Swedish Migration Minister
On the other hand, he held a bilateral meeting with the Swedish Migration Minister, Maria Malmer Stenegard, who was invited to the MED5 meeting. the two ministers have exchanged views on the negotiation of the Pactas countries that are going to succeed each other in the rotating presidency of the Council.
Grande-Marlaska has insisted before the Swedish minister on the need to act on the “mafias that traffic people”. “That should be our main goal, dismantle those who organize these dangerous outings, prevent them and rescue those who are in danger on the high seas“, has added.