Video: https://youtu.be/XNG8UtnSscY
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank Louise Arbour for organising this event and for her boundless enthusiasm with which she leads the preparations towards the adoption of this Compact.
The outcome of the intergovernmental negotiations on the Global Migration Compact is a positive development for all of us.
Our efforts to better manage migration have already borne fruit. Indeed, in Europe, we have managed to overcome the migration crisis compared to three years ago.
But the situation remains fragile and we know that other parts of the world are still facing pressing migratory challenges.
On top of that, migration remains a divisive topic across the globe.
The reality however is that migration and human mobility are part of our history and are here to stay.
It is our shared task to shape solutions.
No country can do this alone, but together we can set up a humane, dignified and secure mechanism for governing human mobility globally.
And this is what this Global Compact is about: to deliver concrete results.
The European Union has made significant progress in developing all the building blocks of a comprehensive migration policy that are contributing to achieve many of the objectives for safe, orderly and regular migration.
More recently, we have for example proposed to expand the competences of the future European Asylum Agency to assist Member States to, for instance, process asylum applications faster and assess vulnerabilities.
We have made a clear call to our Member States to enhance legal pathways to Europe.
This is essential to both reducing irregular migration, as well as to creating a better management of labour migration, based on the needs of our economies.
We proposed to significantly strengthen the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to better manage our borders and to streamline the EU rules on return of irregular migrants, in order to prevent abuses.
To implement these measures, we propose to increase the EU budget for migration management to reach almost €35 billion for the next 7 years.
But we all know this is not a European challenge. Building strong partnerships with countries of origin and transit is equally important if we want to have a truly comprehensive and effective migration management policy.
In that respect, let me mention, for instance, our cooperation with Turkey, Niger, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt as well as with countries of origin like Guinea, Gambia or Afghanistan, to name just a few.
We are willing to further expand the number of our partners in established regional frameworks.
Our Leaders have also decided last week to hold an EU – League of Arab States summit in early 2019 in Cairo.
A good example of innovative cooperation is also the Joint Task Force between the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations set up in Abidjan in November 2017 to address the complex Central Mediterranean situation.
This has allowed providing assistance and support for return and resettlement in a record time to more than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers that were stranded in Libya.
But, of course, we are determined to do even more in the future.
To that end, in June, the European Commission has proposed to the EU Member States to increase the EU external action budget by 30% to €123 billion for the period 2021-2027.
Part of it will be used to support migration management and to address the roots causes of migration
In the same perspective, on 12 September, we have also launched a new Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs with Africa, promoting a substantial increase of private investment, boost trade, enhance job creation.
This shows our commitment to engage with partner countries in the coming years.
I am therefore looking forward to working with all of you on the implementation of the global compact on migration.
Thank you for your attention.