In Salzburg, Pedro Sánchez advocates a responsible and European mechanism to manage migratory flows

Salzburg (Austria)

During the informal meeting of EU leaders, the President of the Govenrment expressed his wish to take steps towards starting up a responsible and supportive European mechanism to manage migratory flows. Pedro Sánchez insisted that the solution will not come from individual responses, but from joint, European solutions. Accordingly, he stressed the importance of putting asides the differences between EU partners and any form of stalemate and moving forward towards this goal. Along the same lines, he reiterated the need to boost support and cooperation with countries of origin and transit, as well as to strengthen relations between the EU and Africa.

Another of the key issues in the talks was the protection of external borders and strengthening the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX), an issue backed by the Govenrment of Spain, and which should take place through a flexible mechanism that complements national systems.

Pool Moncloa/Fernando CalvoThe major point of consensus has been the need to improve civil protection at a European level, to allow effective and coordinated responses to be offered to natural disasters such as the wildfire that recently affected Greece, Portugal and Spain. The President of the Government stated that this type of measure is precisely what helped build Europe.

The meeting of European leaders also served to exchange positions on progress on the Brexit negotiations and to discuss the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU. In this regard, the EU partners announced October as the deadline for reaching an agreement on the key issues: Ireland, respect for the internal market and governance. Pedro Sánchez also expressed his trust in reaching an agreement at the same time on Gibraltar.

Internal security

European leaders stressed the need to step up efforts to improve police, judicial and intelligence cooperation.

The President of the Govenrment expressed his backing for strengthening the power of the European Prosecution Service in the fight against terrorism and for extending them to the issue of people trafficking. Pedro Sánchez particularly stressed the need to improve the interoperability of different data bases and on the exchange of information to enhance the efficiency of the fight against terrorism, where the threat often lies in cross-border cases.

Non official translation