The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, received yesterday in Madrid the European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, with whom they discussed the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.
“Productive meeting with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, to prepare for the Spanish Presidency of the EU,” Albares stated via his Twitter account. “We talked about the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which Spain will promote during the Presidency,” he continued. “We also addressed Schengen and security issues,” he added.
“Very positive talks with the Spanish Foreign Minister on the priorities of the incoming Spanish EU Presidency,” Johansson stated via the same social network. During the meeting, she explained, they discussed “the external dimension” of migration policy. “Strong long-term partnerships with key countries of origin and transit remain key for a comprehensive approach on migration which delivers results,” she added, in the same line expressed on numerous occasions by Albares himself.
For his part, Grande-Marlaska spoke with the Commissioner about the preparation of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, just one day after receiving the Secretary General of the European Commission, Ilze Juhansone, to learn about Spain’s priorities in the field of Interior. Albares also met yesterday with Ilze Juhansone and with the Head of Cabinet of the President of the European Commission, Bjoern Seibert, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the meeting, Grande-Marlaska conveyed to Ylva Johansson “the constructive attitude” that he has perceived in his EU counterparts in order to reach a forthcoming agreement on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, referring to the meetings he has held since February 3 with EU partners, specifically in Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Warsaw, Sofia, Bucharest, Vienna and Budapest, in addition to the meeting with the members of MED5 in Malta and visits to the European agencies of Frontex, Cepol and Europol. “Although there are still divergent positions, the distances are no longer as great as they were half a year ago and we are all aware that time is short and of the need to make concessions in order to reach consensus as soon as possible,” he declared.
In the same vein as the Commissioner, Grande-Marlaska highlighted cooperation with the countries of origin and transit of migration as one of the priorities of the Presidency and proposed to the Commissioner a joint trip to continue strengthening the external dimension of the EU’s migration policy, “a policy that has given Spain very good results in collaboration with African countries,” he declared.
“Excellent meeting with the Minister of Interior today in Madrid,” Johansson stated via Twitter. “Full support for a very well prepared incoming Spanish Presidency. High expectations that they will manage to deliver on our common priorities,” she continued. “Migration Pact and child sexual abuse remain high on the agenda,” she concluded.
On March 30 in Madrid, the Vice-President of the European Commission and responsible for the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, expressed his confidence that the European Pact on Migration and Asylum will go ahead during the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, which will take place from July 1.
“It cannot be that we have the largest internal market and the second strongest currency in the world, but we have not developed this common migration policy,” said Schinas during his speech at an event organized in Madrid by Nueva Economía Fórum. Therefore, he warned, it is necessary to move forward with the European Pact on Migration and Asylum and “present it to the Europeans for the 2024 elections”, because, “if we do not do it, the Europhobes, the populists of the right and left, will attack the EU again”. “There is not much time,” he admitted. “We have the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies”, but the Presidencies prior to the European elections, as is the case of the Belgian one, “do not usually have much room for action” and, therefore, the desirable thing is that the Spanish Presidency “manages to approve this Pact”.
