Remarks by HR/VP Mogherini upon arrival at the European Council

Check against delivery!

It is going to be – I think – a long day.

For what I bring to the Council, there are mainly two things.

One is the work we have done on security and defence. We will have the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, joining us. He was with us - with the Foreign and Defence Ministers - on Monday, to prepare the NATO Summit. I think it will be a good Council. When it comes to security and defence, the work we have done in this year has been impressive, thanks to a good work all Member States have done together with us. I think and I expect that the Council will give further impulse to this European defence work we are doing, and this is a good thing.

Then, I think we will have an important discussion on the external side of migration; I leave the internal side for the Heads of State or Government. 

From what is my competence, I bring some proposals to the Council. One is to put more money from the Member States into the [EU Emergency] Trust Fund for Africa. We need to sustain the projects we have developed with the African countries of transit and origin, of movements, because this brings results. Numbers have gone down already enormously and we need to sustain these efforts.

Second, I propose to reinforce the work we do in particular with the Libyan coast guards. Operation Sophia is training them; there is more we can do in this field, if Member States are ready to support more the operation.

And then, obviously, there is the issue of the disembarkation centres: I have been working with the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] and the IOM [International Organisation for Migration], directly with [United Nations] High Commissioner [for Refugees, Filippo] Grandi and Director General [of the IOM, William] Swing in these days to shape a framework that would be at the same time sustainable but, most of all, in full respect of human rights and international law. This proposal is on the table and we could, if the Council indicates this is their will, work further with the UN, with the IOM and UNHCR.
 

Many are talking about a crisis, we are talking about numbers that at the moment are, more or less, 80% down from last year, so we are talking about numbers that are perfectly manageable, we should not get into a panic state of mind. Our policies in the last year or so have started to produce results. Now they need to be sustained and it is extremely important that we do this in cooperation and partnership with our friends in countries of origin and transit, in particular in Africa. We are investing a lot in Africa, now Member States need to do the same.

Q. If you are talking about money, how much money do Member States have to come up with in order to work with these African partners alongside the IOM, UNHCR? What kind of amounts are we talking about?

We are not talking about large amounts of money. The European Union and the Member States are already now investing more or less €20 billion every year in Africa. So, we are talking about a sort of Marshall Plan that is already in place.

What we need now is more or less €1 billion more which is not that big amount of money to complete the projects that are already in the pipeline. These are projects that are going to have an impact on the communities from where the migrants leave, in countries of origin and to help countries of transit to dismantle the economy of the trafficking.

It is not a big amount of money: half of it will come from the European Commission and I think Member States today can put the rest of the money – we are talking about €500 million – to make it possible for these projects to be up and running in the coming months. These are projects that have an impact on the ground, they have been producing results so far but obviously, we need to sustain them over time, to consolidate these results in a sustainable, humane and respectful of human rights' way.

Q. What do you think about the Trump Putin summit announced today?

We are always in favor of dialogue and talking. You know, the European Union is in favor of cooperation and dialogue every time that this is aimed at reaching good results.