Informal video conference of EU Foreign and Home Affairs Ministers: Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell upon arrival

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Today, there is a jumbo meeting of the [European Union] Foreign Affairs Ministers with the [European Union] Home Affairs Ministers. It is the first time it happens in the last 6 years. It is very timely because migration is at the core of our external relations and our external partnership with third countries.

We have to coordinate the external and the internal dimension of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which is currently being discussed by Member States, proposed by the Commission. We have to work for a safe, fair and regular migration.

We have to put together incentives in order to make third countries accept the people who have to go back and to create a flow of regular migration that makes people able to travel without having to risk their lives.

And also we have to coordinate better our activities, our policies, linking migration with development. It is not just a matter of containing migrants, but also tackling the root causes of migration, which are is the underdevelopment, demographic pressures, or imbalances of trade. Everything is together.

And that is why to put together the interior ministers and the external ministers is our way to try to build a comprehensive approach to such an important problem as migration is today. A fair, safe and regular migration is our purpose.

Thank you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-203330