PACE to Discuss Response to European Migration Crisis on Tuesday

  29 September 2015    Read: 568
PACE to Discuss Response to European Migration Crisis on Tuesday
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) lawmakers from 47 countries will discuss Tuesday a comprehensive humanitarian and political response to the migration and refugee crisis in Europe.
President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy Laura Boldrini and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland will address the lawmakers ahead of a debate on current affairs.

The parliamentarians will also discuss the Dublin Regulation, a document signed by EU members stipulating that the first EU member country entered by a refugee must process their asylum application.

Italian lawmaker Michele Nicoletti will present his report on the Dublin Regulation. According to him, the Dublin system has "become a symbol of unfairness and lack of solidarity in European asylum policy" and "has given rise to serious violations of asylum seekers’ human rights."

Nicoletti says that since the Dublin regulation was introduced in 1990, "the scale, nature and geographical focus of mass migration into the European Union have changed significantly."

Lawmakers will vote on a draft resolution proposing a series of reforms to the implementation of the current Dublin system.
Another migration issue to be discussed Tuesday is countries of transit.

Dutch lawmaker Tineke Strik, who is the rapporteur on the issue, notes that "the continuing, credible reports of unlawful `push-backs` of migrants and refugees and related human rights violations are a cause for concern." She also calls on all member states of the Council of Europe to ensure that they refrain from such practices.

On Tuesday the lawmakers will also discuss a report by a Swiss lawmaker Liliane Maury Pasquier "Public health and the interests of the pharmaceutical industry: how to guarantee the primacy of public health interests?"

His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg is expected to address the assembly later the same day.

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