Migration in the Central Mediterranean. Jean Monnet Occasional Papers 02/2013

In the last decade irregular immigration has emerged as a “security” challenge (in the language of International Relations military “threat”) in the Mediterranean region particularly in the central, sub-region1. The designation of this issue as a “security challenge” or “threat” is itself controversial and will be discussed further down. This paper focuses on the situation in the central Mediterranean involving mainly four countries namely Italy, Libya, Malta and Tunisia all of which have long standing historic links and bilateral relations and participate in the so called “5+5” Dialogue in the Western Mediterranean. Two of these Central Mediterranean countries (Italy, Malta) are EU member states and Tunisia has a long standing relationship with the EU [Association Agreement, Barcelona Process (EMP), Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)] while Libya so far has no formal relations at all with the EU. This paper analyses some of the aspects of migration in the central Mediterranean focusing on the link between the domestic and international politics of the issue in Italy and Malta and contrasting the different approaches taken. For example, although Italy and Malta both resort to self-help and both try to involve the EU in helping them tackle the problem, they do this in a markedly different way: Italy uses the EU as a supplement to its independent and bilateral efforts while Malta looks to the EU as the major solution to the problem. Lacking the power and influence to deal with the issue, Malta tends to see the problem as primarily a multilateral issue or one that can only be tackled in concert with stronger powers in the region preferably within an EU context. On the other hand, Italy has been keen in involving the EU but decided to go it alone when this option turned out to be a dead end. In this paper I also try to show the extent (or limitations) to which multilateral initiatives such as the “5+5” and Euro operation really play a decisive role in incentivizing or facilitating inter-state cooperation or joint solutions. This paper also refers to the EU acquis, the notion of solidarity (norms) and the extent to which it is implemented as well as a number of connected issues. The subjects of this paper, the Mediterranean Boat People, have been referred to by various names in the literature, all of which may be more or less deficient in actually defining them all. They have been referred to as “illegal” or “irregular” immigrants, “refugees” in search of international protection, “migrants at sea” and “boat people”. The use of “boat people” dispenses with the need of having to define the various categories of migrants involved and is thus preferred in this paper

Malta and ten years of EU membership : how tenacious was the island?

Since it is difficult to attempt a broad analysis covering all the aspects of what ten years of European Union membership have meant for Malta, this article focuses on a selection of the most salient impacts of membership, preceded by a description of Malta, a characterization of its politics, and an analysis of the traditionally polarized political scene, in which the positions of the two most important Maltese parties on EU and NATO membership are discussed. Topics addressed include the analysis of the changes in the political landscape of Malta as a consequence of the policy changes of the Maltese political parties on EU integration; party shifts on the neutrality issue; Malta’s way of tackling the immigration burden, and some considerations on the economic effects of European Union membership.peer-reviewe

The trust fund for Africa : a preliminary assessment

The EU-Africa Summit on migration and an informal council meeting took place in the Maltese capital Valletta on the 11 and 12 November 2015. The decision to call the meetings was taken by Donald Tusk on 20 April 2015 in response to the worsening migrant tragedies in the central Mediterranean region, a day after a fishing boat full of migrants capsized some 96 kilometres off the Libyan coast leading to the loss of about 800 lives in what became the biggest migrant boat tragedy ever. The need to strengthen cooperation with third countries was paramount. The EU-Africa Summit was attended by EU and African leaders, the Presidents of the European Council, the Commission and the European Parliament as well as high officials from the United Nations and some of its agencies, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Arab League and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. The EU “Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa” (hereafter, “The Emergency Trust Fund for Africa” [EUTF]) was set up during the summit. A fortnight later a Commonwealth heads of state and government also met in Valletta between the 27 and 29 November and migration again featured prominently.peer-reviewe

Malta’s 2008 election : a vote for continuity and change

The 2008 Malta election confirmed the Nationalist Party in power for a third consecutive term, but with a much reduced majority. It also instigated a change of leadership in the opposition Malta Labour Party and the subsequent election of a new leader from amongst the ranks of its MEPs. Unlike national elections in most other EU member states, EU membership featured very strongly in this election but in a peculiarly different way than it did in previous ones. Voter participation at 92.5% was below the 2003 rate of 95.96% and 1.32% less than the 1966-2008 average.peer-reviewe

The Euro-Mediterranean challenge : democratisation or good governance?

The EU’s Mediterranean initiatives have their strong and weak points. For that reason some recently proposed policy directions are worthy of close scrutiny. The first, which however will not be analysed at length here, concerns the interface between the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and the new Neighbourhood Policy as well as the Strategic Partnership with the countries of the Middle East which was announced last June. Has the EMP been devoured by the Neighbourhood Policy so that in fact we are living in the post-EMP stage already? Many are confounded by this uncertainty and the EU needs to clarify the position as soon as possible in order to ensure greater transparency of goals and perhaps improved decisiveness in action. The second issue which shall be analysed at more length here is that as a result of modest policy achievements in the Mediterranean region, that have often been judged to fall short of projected targets, the EU seems to be constantly groping for useful conceptual tools that would extricate its initiatives from the morass of ineffectiveness. Prescriptions are often discarded as quickly as they are prepared. Rather heroically last year the Commission was proposing mainstreaming human rights in its policies towards the Mediterranean region in an aggressive manner. Recent Commission proposals seem to suggest that the EU ought to pursue good governance first. Does this entail that democratic reforms and main-streaming democracy have taken a back seat in the Commission’s approach to the Mediterranean? What is the position of the member states? What the Commission seems to be suggesting is that the EU should first pursue good governance and democracy may or may not follow afterwards.peer-reviewe