An agreement of the "28" EU heads of state and government on the conclusions of the European Council on immigration was announced at 4:35 on Friday morning (5:35 Cyprus time) by President Donald Tusk, after at least 7 hours of continuous negotiations.
The EU "28" agree to set up closed "voluntary" landing centers for migrants in the Mediterranean, where asylum seekers will be "filtered", but have also pledged to complete the revision of the Dublin Regulation itself. asylum until the end of time. Following a request from the four Visegrad countries, an attempt was made to include the provision that this Dublin revision should be done unanimously.
The disembarkation centers will be located not only in EU countries, but also in North African countries. The 28 are even committed to financing these moves.
The Member States agreed to strengthen the protection of the EU's external borders, but also to speed up the procedures for the separation of asylum seekers and migrants, returning the latter directly to their countries of origin. They promised to revise the rules for the redistribution of migrants when a country of first entry is under pressure - something Italy has been urging.
The final text reportedly includes the provision of "clear guidelines for NGOs in the Mediterranean", at the request of Austria.
"All vessels operating in the Mediterranean must abide by the law and not obstruct the operations of the Libyan Coast Guard," said the final text of the conclusions, according to Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
At least eleven European Union countries are ready to receive migrants arriving in "landing centers".
Italy, which earlier blocked conclusions, agreed to the final wording on immigration, unblocking the rest of the conclusions of the first day of the 28th Summit, at 01:30 on Friday (local time), after several hours. Prime Minister Conte's consultations and bilateral contacts, mainly with French President Macron.
It is noted that the attitude of Italy had led to the postponement of the briefing of Presidents Tusk and Juncker to the press on the results of the first day before dinner, as J. Conte refused to give his consent to the text of the conclusions (concerning defense, relations with NATO, enlargement and the state of world trade) in order to achieve better wording in the immigration text, which had not yet been discussed.
Following Italy's agreement, negotiations resumed, this time with the four Visegrad countries - Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary - until 04:30 p.m.
The "V4" on the initiative of V. Orban demanded that the term "voluntary solidarity" be included in the text.
The French President Em. Macron spoke of "good news for France" and of a "European solution", of "an important step" and of a result that emerged through collective bargaining.