by Federico Grandesso
BRUSSELS, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Former European Council (EC) President Herman Van Rompuy has urged the European Union (EU) to do more to defend its outer borders in order to stop the influx of migrants.
"We must do a better job protecting our external borders in the Mediterranean Sea," the Belgian official told Xinhua in a recent interview in Brussels as EU leaders met in the Austrian city of Salzburg for an informal summit on migration and other issues.
"But I want also to stress that the initiatives that were put in place in the last two years have been very effective," Van Rompuy added, pointing to a 97 percent drop in migrants along the Turkish route and an 80 percent decrease in flows along routes from North Africa.
"In this context, it is important that the migrant flows continue to decrease," he continued.
EU official data show the influx of illegal migrants has reduced sharply, back to levels before the 2015 crisis when more than 1 million refugees and migrants crossed into Europe. In the first eight months of 2018, irregular border crossings into the EU fell 40 percent from a year ago to about 86,500 in number.
Van Rompuy praised the European Commission's decision to beef up the EU border agency Frontex with 10,000 additional border guards as a step in the right direction to strengthen the protection of the EU outer borders.
Another such step is setting up hot spots in non-EU countries where asylum seekers can apply for international protection, he said.
"Now the real challenge is to find suitable countries ready to take part in this plan," he said. "African countries could host such hot spots, but one must also take the symbolic side into consideration: some could consider it a violation of their national sovereignty."
Van Rompuy added, "If other European countries that are not EU members, such as Albania, offer their cooperation on this front thanks to their good relations with Italy, this is also positive."
The former Belgian Prime Minister also praised Italy's agreements with Libya.
"It (Libya) is a very complicated country because its government does not have control over every province," said Van Rompuy. "The initiatives taken by former Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, whose administration first negotiated with the Libyans, gave good results."
"The figures confirm a strong decrease in migrant flows from Libya," he said. "Now we must continue to help our Libyan partners, because we need them to continue doing a good job. We may not be completely satisfied all the time with the agreement we signed, but I think in the end the result is the most important element."
On the relocation of migrants already in Europe, Van Rompuy explained that the EU's agreement on "flexible solidarity" means that there is no real legal obligation to host refugees.
"The EU found consensus under this plan, the problem now is to implement it concretely," he added.
