PM’s adviser: Appearance of shift in EU migration policy

The European Union’s current “misguided” migration policy appears to be changing, György Bakondi, the prime minister’s security adviser, has said, citing the rejection by the European Parliament (EP) plenary of a draft resolution calling for increased search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

In an interview to public television late on Saturday, Bakondi referred to the EP’s rejection of a related proposal approved by the LIBE committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs which, he insisted, would have made illegal mass migration into Europe easier.

He said “certain liberal left-wing groups” had backed the proposal but the EP plenary scuppered it.

He said there was now a chance that the EU’s “misguided migration policy” pursued since 2015 may change.

Bakondi also noted that new EP operated differently, saying that whereas the Socialists and the European People’s Party had previously had a majority between them and could pass measures they agreed on, now the votes of others count.

Meanwhile, he said an Italian research institute estimated that the number of migrants arriving in Italy illegally will have reached 630,000 by the end of the year.

He added that the figures were based on migrants registered with an authority and excluded those hiding from the authorities. “So it’s only possible to have an estimate of the number of people arriving in Europe,” he said.

Source: MTI