The Chairman of the Libyan Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Yousef Al-Agouri, welcomed the speech of the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, regarding the migration crisis. He highlighted her call for the EU to show solidarity, exert greater efforts to unify policies, and allocate further resources.
In a statement, Al-Agouri said, “The challenge facing Europe is to open up more to southern Mediterranean countries, in dealing with the migration issue. They must work on developing joint programs aimed at supporting economic reform. This will inevitably lead to alleviating the severity of the crisis.
He added that Libyan authorities still received much of the blame for failing to manage the crisis, regardless of the country’s political and economic conditions. Al-Agouri stressed the importance of providing support for building state institutions. He noted that this requires benefiting from European experiences in various fields. Al-Agouri also added that the international community, especially the EU, is required to provide greater support to Libya.
Notably, von der Leyen proposed new migration reforms that would replace the ‘Dublin Regulation’ which governs which member state handles an asylum claim. “I can announce that we will abolish the Dublin Regulation, and we will replace it with a new European migration governance system. It will have common structures on asylum and return, and it will have a new strong solidarity mechanism,” she told European lawmakers in Brussels.
Earlier, she called for Europe to work together on migration during her ‘State of the European Union address’. “I expect all member states to step up too. Migration is a European challenge, and all of Europe must do its part,” she said.