Dear All,
I am pleased to be here in Vienna today at this international conference, hosted by my colleague Herbert Kickl and the Austrian Presidency, to discuss migration and security cooperation together with our African partners,such as Minister Fourati from Tunisia.
I am delighted that we have this opportunity to discuss these political priorities, which are not only at the very top of the European agenda, but also of the global agenda.
Europe and Africa are facing shared challenges, which should be turned into shared opportunities.
Many think it is just about migration. Migration is indeed an important element.
But it is not the only one.Security is indeed another one– but so is trade, investment and business.
As President Juncker mentioned Wednesday in his State of the Union Speech, Africa is Europe’s twin continent.
And by twin, we don’t mean the small brother.
No, equal partners! Opportunities, like the one provided by our meeting today, are not about charity.
They are about forging equal and strong partnerships, and reciprocal commitments for the future
about issues, that are important for both European and African citizens.
This is precisely why the European Commission has proposed to launch a new ‘Africa – Europe Alliance’ to deepen economic relations and to boost investment and jobs.
As I said in the beginning, the EU’s cooperation with Africa is not just about migration or security.
But they are two important elements in our common agenda which need our immediate attention – and actions.
When it comes to migration, we need to step up our shared efforts towards reducing irregular migration flows, while reinforcing legal pathways in a comprehensive manner.
Achieving this result is in the interest of both European and African countries and requires their joint cooperation.
Today’s conference was useful to exchange on all these points and further pave the way forward.
When it comes to addressing the root causes, tapping into the possibilities of the EU Trust Fund for Africa is key.
When it comes to fighting smugglers and traffickers and addressing irregular migration flows,
the EU has stepped up its cooperation with a number of key African countries as you may know.
On the one hand this means that we offer our support to develop better border management systems as well as counter-smuggling operations.
On the other, this means that we have to be consistent about return and readmission – on both sides.
Those who have no right to stay and who are not in need of protection should be returned to their countries of origin or transit.
Ultimately, we all want to work towards less dangerous migration routes and less lives lost – whether at sea or over land, and to ensure the respect of migrants’ rights and of the principle of non-refoulement.
Together with our partners UNHCR and IOM we are precisely exploring ways how to better achieve these common objectives.
I want to be clear that this is not and never has been about outsourcing responsibilities – this is about partnerships on an equal footing and for collective solutions.
We need to work towards sustainable solutions together with our partners.
And if we talk about stemming irregular migration,
we also have to be open about enhancing legal channels of migration – whether for protection or for economic purposes.
Member States have already resettled more than 13,200 people this year of the promised 50,000.
As certain countries in Africa are a priority, I have asked them to focus on those too when further implementing their pledges.
But we also want to offer labour migration opportunities, depending on the needs of our economies.
We are currently working with Member States on developing pilot projects on labour migration with selected third-countries in Africa.
And we are ready to provide financial support to Member States carrying out such projects.
At the same time, we want to improve the EU’s system for attracting highly skilled with an ambitious reform of the EU Blue Card.
In parallel, cooperation with Africa is necessary in our work towards forging genuine and operational security partnerships, which will contribute to greater stability in the wider region.
Terrorism is a global threat and putting in place a stronger partnership between the EU and Africa against this threat is essential.
This partnership is also key to fight against organised crime organisations, which are fuelling any kind of illicit trafficking, not only of migrants, but also of drogues and firearms, and to ensure the stability of the region.
By developing our counterterrorism and security dialogue with North African countries, and establishing an operational cooperation of their law enforcement agencies with our Police training agency CEPOL as well as with EUROPOL our aim is to strengthen our collective capacity to cope with all these security threats.
We need to work together towards securing a stable and prosperous future for the entire region, and on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Thank you very much for your attention.