Summit on Migration of EU and African heads of state and government in Malta: the final declaration stresses the importance of addressing the socio-economic root causes of migration challenges in the Mediterranean
Barcelona, 12 November 2015 – A Summit on Migration gathering the heads of State and government of the countries of the European Union and Africa took place in Valletta, Malta, on 11-12 November.
The UfM expresses its strong support to the focus given by the Summit final declaration to the root causes of migration and the need to address them in a comprehensive approach through development, job creation and investment opportunities. The Union for the Mediterranean is actively promoting a comprehensive approach linking the migration and security challenges with the socio-economic and sustainable development challenges in the Mediterranean. Through its activities, it directly contributes to the objectives set by the Valletta Summit in its final conclusions. UfM activity is powering ahead through 33 regional projects worth a total of 5 billion Euros labelled by the 43 UfM member countries and focused on youth employability, inclusive growth, women’s empowerment, sustainable development and infrastructures.
The constitutive Agreement creating the “EU Emergency Fund for stability and adressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa” was signed today in Valletta. It will allow to pool large resources from different donors. “I welcome the adoption of the Emergency Trust Fund which demonstrates a strong will to invest in the development of concrete actions and to foster the synergies between different institutions. The UfM will continue to contribute actively to these objectives”, stated Fathallah Sijilmassi.
The Heads of States and governments decided in their final conclusions to hold regular dialogues on migration through existing bilateral and regional mechanisms, to undertake concrete actions to respond to challenges of migration and mobility at the appropriate level and with a gender perspective, and to allocate appropriate resources to the implementation of concrete actions using all available instruments, including the newly set up EU Emergency Trust Fund. All participants stressed the need to adopt a global and balanced approach strengthening regional partnership and cooperation.
Many countries present at the Valletta Summit are UfM member countries. The Secretary General of the UfM was invited as observer to the Summit.
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