EU Council chief, Commission VP discuss new migration pact
The European Union’s commissioner in charge of migration, Margaritis Schinas, met with European Council President Charles Michel on Monday to discuss new migration rules being drawn up for the bloc.
Schinas also briefed Michel on his recent trip to Greece, where he visited the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos to inspect the impact of the destruction of the Moria reception and identification center, which has left thousands of refugees and migrant without shelter.
It is “time to rally around a common Migration EU policy,” Schinas said in a tweet about the meeting.
Speaking to reporters last Friday, Schinas had described the new pact as “a house with three floors,” designed prevent arrivals. He also said the new rules would comprise a “system of permanent, effective solidarity.”
Greece is moving ahead with the creation of a tent city to accommodate more than 12,000 refugees and migrants left homeless by a string of fires that razed the notoriously overcrowded and squalid Moria camp.
It will also be building a new permanent facility to replace the old one, a plan that is being vehemently opposed by locals on the eastern Aegean island, as well as by the refugees and migrants.
