African Leaders Unsure Of Where In EU To Seek Help With Migration - Slovak Prime Minister

Leaders of African states still do not to which EU politicians they need to direct their concerns about illegal migration flows, even though Europe has created a united policy for tackling the problem at its source, Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said Thursday on the sidelines of the EU informal summit in Salzburg.

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2018) Leaders of African states still do not to which EU politicians they need to direct their concerns about illegal migration flows, even though Europe has created a united policy for tackling the problem at its source, Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said Thursday on the sidelines of the EU informal summit in Salzburg.

Earlier in the day, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that the European Union would launch talks with Egypt and other North African nations in order to find a solution to the illegal migration problem in the Mediterranean region.

"The European Union is now united in the belief that instead of the discussed quotas on reception of refugees, it is necessary to focus on providing aid to countries from where the main flows of refugees headed for Europe originate. The problem is that European politicians are coming to North African states more and more often, but the leaders of these states still do not understand with whom they should hold talks, who has a mandate to help them," Pellegrini said.

He pointed out that the aid for North African states would require significant sums, but added that this was an obligation of the European Union.

Pellegrini also said that there were some problems linked to how the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) was operating.

"It is unclear which competences should be given to FRONTEX so that some states do not lose part of their sovereignty. Some [countries] propose to replace it with national border guard units and customs services. If the agency is preserved, it will be necessary to determine how it will cooperate with such units," the prime minister added.

The European Union has been experiencing a large-scale migration crisis since 2015 due to the influx of thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing crises in the middle East and North Africa.

During a summit this summer, the European Council agreed on several aspects of the bloc's migration policy, including the establishment of "regional disembarkation platforms in close cooperation with relevant third countries" and controlled centers in the EU member states to process asylum applications. The resettlement or relocation of migrants across the bloc is expected to be done on a voluntary basis amid the lack of consensus.