EU can't leave entire migration issue to mediterranean countries: official

A migrant holds a baby as he waits to disembark from Italian Navy ship Sirio in the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, Italy, August 21, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BRATISLAVA - The European Union (EU) can't leave the entire migration issue only on the shoulders of countries that are exposed to heavy migrant flows, such as Greece and Italy, Slovak parliament's foreign affairs committee chairman Frantisek Sebej said Sunday.

The bloc has to tackle the issue together, Sebej said after the end of the Interparliamentary Conference on Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in Bratislava.

"There was a problem concerning the view of migration between the Mediterranean countries on one hand and the 'inland' countries on the other," said Sebej.

Regarding migration, however, representatives of the 28 EU member states, the European Parliament and some candidate countries agreed that migration is a European issue and that it can't be addressed on an individual basis.

"The redistribution of migrants among member states didn't make it into the conclusions in the end," said Sebej, noting that the Mediterranean countries were promised that they wouldn't be left alone concerning the issue.

Among the main topics of the Interparliamentary Conference on CFSP and CSDP in Bratislava this weekend were the EU as a global player, the Western Balkans and the EU, sustainable development and migration, and a European Defence Union.

The Inter-Parliamentary Conference was set up in order to strengthen the role of the national parliaments of EU states and the European Parliament (EP) in EU decision-making in terms of foreign and security policies. It brings together delegations of national parliaments of EU-member states and of the EP. It convenes once every six months in the country presiding over the Council of the EU or at the EP in Brussels.