Metsola calls for a joint European position on the migration crisis

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in her address to European leaders on 17 October 2024, stressed that the real solution to the migration crisis must be a European one. She stressed the importance of cooperation between member states to address this challenge in a comprehensive and sustainable way. Metsola defended the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted after a decade of political stalemate, as a framework for managing borders, protecting those in need of asylum and combating people smuggling networks, including state actors that use migration as a tool for destabilisation, such as Russia and Belarus.

Metsola warned that the pact will only work if all states implement it effectively, especially in times of migratory pressure. He called for strengthened cooperation to preserve the integrity of the Schengen area, noting that migration challenges cannot be solved in isolation by any one country. The key, according to Metsola, is a European solution that is firm, fair and in line with the EU’s humanitarian values.

He also linked migration problems to global instability, underlining how crises in regions close to Europe, such as Ukraine, the Middle East and North Africa, directly affect the continent.

Further information: European Parliament