Von der Leyen: “Closing the Pact on migration and asylum by the end of the legislature

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was certain she could close the Pact on Migration and Asylum by the end of the current legislature. “On the one hand, there is the legislative work, i.e. our Pact on Asylum and migration, which I am sure we will adopt in this legislature,” she said during a press conference in Bayreuth, Germany, with Bavarian President Markus Soeder. “On the other hand, at least as important is the practical work we do every day to manage migration. And this ranges from issues relating to the Western Balkans route to those of the Mediterranean countries. To give an example: we have worked very intensively with the Western Balkan states so that the Western Balkans migration route can be managed in a better and more transparent way for us. Since the beginning of the year, we have managed to reduce irregular migration via this route by 25 per cent. This is the result of very pragmatic work,” she added.

  Lebanon is home to just over four million people, but hosts more than a million Syrian refugees and more than 500,000 Palestinians for decades. In this regard, the head of the executive council of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hashem Safieddine, stressed that the EU resolution on the continued presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is atrocious and constitutes an insolent intervention in Lebanese affairs. The European Parliament has approved a Resolution which supports the continued presence of refugees in Lebanon despite all the agonies caused by this crisis. Seyyed Safieddine recalled that the Europeans themselves were involved in the plan led by the United States to send terrorists to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the entire region.

The EU aims to "reach an agreement" to strengthen relations with Tunisia "as soon as possible". This was reiterated by a spokeswoman for the European Commission when asked about the ongoing negotiations with Tunis for the signing of the memorandum of understanding which includes the management of migration. The visit to the North African country by the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, to sign the agreement, expected in recent days, had been postponed due to the national celebrations for the feast of the sacrifice. "We have always said that we would resume negotiations after the holidays, and therefore we will do so in the next few days"; indicated the EU spokeswoman.