The EU is sparring over whether Brussels should erect a Europe-wide search-and-rescue operation for migrants following the shipwreck that claimed hundreds of lives near Greece in June.
In a tense European Parliament hearing on Wednesday in Strasbourg, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson declined to endorse the idea, putting her at odds with a majority of Parliament. She indicated that migrant search-and-rescue operations fell within the remit of national governments and the EU border agency Frontex played a coordinating role.
“We will continue this work, step it up and engage actively with member states for them to take necessary actions,” she told EU lawmakers on Wednesday, before pointedly adding: “Member states should step up on search and rescue.”
Parliament wants the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to do more. On Thursday, MEPs are poised to vote on a resolution urging the EU to set up its own migrant rescue mission aimed at saving more lives in the Mediterranean. The non-binding measure will urge the Commission to “support such initiatives politically and financially,” according to the text.
The non-binding resolution is expected to pass with support from five Parliamentary groups, including the three biggest: the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the center-left Socialists and Democrats and the centrist Renew Europe. But it means little for actionable change without support of many EU countries.
The text calls for the “establishment of a comprehensive EU Search and Rescue mission implemented by the Member States’ competent authorities and Frontex.”
“In our debate, we’re discussing just one thing: saving humans from drowning,” said German Social Democrat MEP Birgit Sippel, echoing comments from other left-wing and centrist parliamentarians.
“Take Mare Nostrum as an inspiration for this,” Sippel added, referencing an Italian-led migrant rescue mission in the Strait of Sicily from 2013 to 2014 that was then replaced by other EU-wide programs.
But Johansson indicated that migrant rescue operations must be carried out by EU countries, most of which are unlikely to support Parliament’s proposal.
The Italian government in 2018 pushed Brussels to pull the plug on the EU-led naval mission Operation Sophia, designed to break up smuggling routes in the Mediterranean. The initiative officially ended in 2020.
Johansson pointed to other ways to prevent migrant deaths, including improving legal pathways, striking deals with non-EU countries to reduce migration and strengthening a search-and-rescue information-sharing body that stretches across EU countries.
“The Commission is working with member states to improve coordination, notably in the contact group on search and rescue,” she told EU lawmakers. “We will continue this work, step it up and engage actively with member states for them to take necessary actions.”