The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Luca Jahier, hosted on 20 May a webinar Migration in times of COVID-19, the unforgotten tragedy, waiting for the new “EU Pact”. The webinar gave the floor to distinguished speakers such as the Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarachi, MEP and Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affair Juan Fernando López Aguilar and Secretary-General of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Catherine Woollard.
The panellists discussed the COVID-19 outbreak's impact on migration and asylum-seeking process in the EU and debated whether the pandemic could be a game-changer for migration. Can the EU, at last, find an efficient way to manage migration and forge a new sense of solidarity in this area too, after the fight against the virus once again highlighted the importance of being united?
All panellists agreed on the necessity to create a common and coordinated legal migration policy and adopt a common approach to tackling the migration issues.
The word solidarity has found a new meaning in the unprecedented decisions taken by the European Commission and the Member States to respond to COVID -19 crisis. The new pact on migration and asylum must put forward the same solidarity between the member states and with third countries, for the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees, concluded Mr Jahier.
(euneighbours)
