"I am sure that today we will find an agreement, the time has come after years of discussion and if we do not find it we will have lost everyone." This was stated by Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez when he arrived at the Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg. "The goal for us was to find a good balance between solidarity and responsibility and we are very close to this balance," he added.
For her part, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson stressed that "it has been almost three years since the presentation of my proposal, it was a marathon, now we have 100 meters still to go, we are close to finding an agreement: I expect that the Member States will be able to complete these few meters". "It is important to underline that the agreement is not a game between losers and winners, a zero-sum game: when we act together we are very strong, but if we are not united we are all losers because no one can manage migration alone
".
"We are here to find a compromise to be able to respond to our public opinion on the problems of migration, which are important: France has its position but we must keep the point of view of other countries, we still need a little bit of work. The agreement can show European citizens ahead of the European elections that when the EU is united, it gets results," said Gérald Darmanin, France's interior minister.
In order to reach an agreement on migration today at the Home Affairs Council, it will be key for some countries, such as Italy, to bring home the principle of "connection". That is, the possibility of transferring migrants who have been refused international protection to a country other than their country of origin, provided that it is judged safe enough and there is a sufficient "connection" to be able to proceed with the transfer (for example a stay of a certain period of time before arriving in Europe). This was announced by a diplomatic source involved in the
last-minute negotiations.
