The President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, has responded to the request of the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, to hold a meeting on the islands to discuss the migration emergencyfor which the Vice-President of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, will travel to the islands to analyse it during a meeting with the President.
Von der Leyen, who is part of the plenary formation of the European Commission, agreed with Clavijo on the need to “increase the crucial question of the increase in migrant arrivalsin particular unaccompanied minors via the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands. Faced with the impossibility of travelling to the archipelago, he delegated this meeting to the Vice-President of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, in order to analyse the situation and to reinforce the commitment “to continue to provide the Canary Islands with the necessary support”.
The head of the European Commission is convinced that the visit “will provide an opportunity to discuss how the European Union can continue to support in the Canary Islands financially and operationally”, as well as promoting “greater engagement” with countries of origin and transit, he said.
The European Commission is thus responding to the offensive diplomatic initiative initiated by the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, due to the lack of migration management in the community institutions of the Spanish government to face the humanitarian phenomenon in the archipelago.
The response from the President of the European Commission comes two weeks after Fernando Clavijo asked Ursula von der Leyen to get information on the ground about the migratory drama on the islands after the rimmigration surge recorded during the month of August and the saturation situation of the minor reception system.
“Borderline” situation
The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, also asked a few days ago the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, to appear before the MEPs to present the “borderline” situation that the islands live and demand support measures from the European Union (EU) in the face of the migratory emergency on the southern border of Europe.
He stressed that this was a situationuntenable” in the Canary Islands and a “structural” problem affecting the islands, which alone have to care for more than 5,500 minors.
On President Clavijo’s agenda with the European institutions and organisations are the meeting he had in April in Brussels with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the series of meetings he had with parliamentarians from the majority of groups in the European Parliament in November last year to ensure that the Atlantic Route receives similar treatment to that of the Mediterranean in the European Pact on Migration and Asylum approved last April.
