EU To Hold Sherpa Meeting On Distribution Of Migrants Saved At Sea On Friday - Commission

BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2018) The European Commission has announced that it will hold a meeting of 12 member states at sherpa level on Friday to discuss an EU-wide approach to the situation around migrant rescue vessels and focus on responsibility-sharing in taking in these people.

On Sunday, Rome asked the commission to take immediate measures to solve the situation around the Italian coast guard ship Diciotti with 177 rescued migrants on board. The vessel is currently in Sicily's port of Catania, after having been denied entry by Maltese and Italian authorities.

"We are stepping up our proactive work to find a long-term European solution, and, in this context, a sherpa meeting has been called for Friday. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss a common EU approach and the way forward toward a sustainable solution and build on the experience and cooperation between member states on the disembarkation and the responsibility-sharing over the last couple of weeks," European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said at a briefing on Thursday.

Winterstein noted that the meeting was largely seen as a follow-up to the European Council summit in June and "the ongoing work on the regional disembarkation."

The spokesman confirmed that the representatives of 12 EU nations were expected to attend the meeting. When asked by a reporter, why the meeting would not bring together all the 28 states, he clarified that the commission "reached out" to the member states that were involved in the recent cases around migrant vessels or were "directly concerned."

The spokesman added that the meeting was "open to any member state interested in finding European solutions."

Over the past several months, the EU states, namely, Malta, Italy and Spain, have been at odds over the migrant rescue vessels issue, while some Mediterranean states have taken a tougher stance on the new arrivals.

In June, Italy and Malta, for instance, denied entry to the Aquarius that was then carrying over 600 rescued migrants, while Spain eventually allowed the vessel to dock in Valencia. However, both Spain and Italy denied entry to another rescue vessel, the Lifeline, later in June. Earlier in August, the Maltese government allowed the Aquarius migrant rescue vessel with now 141 people on board to dock in its ports after it reached an agreement with several EU states to share the migrants.