Today, the European Parliament and the Council have reached a long-awaited political agreement on the Pact on Migration and Asylum.
First, I want to thank Vice-President Schinas and Commissioner Johansson, for all their tireless efforts and hard work that have gone into brokering this agreement.
Migration is a European challenge that requires European solutions.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants undertake perilous journeys to reach our borders. They are often the victims of criminals, smugglers and traffickers who lure them with false promises of safe passage and extort money from them.
Member States on our external borders need to manage illegal migration- often challenging their border protection.
At the beginning of my mandate, I made a commitment to establish a common system for managing migration in the EU.
This Pact on Migration and Asylum will ensure that there is an effective European response to this European challenge.
It means that Europeans will decide who comes to the EU and who can stay, not the smugglers. It means protecting those in need.
This Pact will also ensure that Member States share the effort responsibly, showing solidarity with those that protect our external borders while preventing illegal migration to the EU.
And it will give the EU and its Member States the tools to react rapidly in situations of crisis, when Member States are faced with large numbers of illegal arrivals or instrumentalisation when hostile countries deliberately attempts to destabilise the EU or its Member States.
Alongside the Pact, the Commission supports Member States through concrete, operational measures to deal with immediate challenges.
We are implementing concrete action plans to fight illegal migration through the Mediterranean, the Balkans or the Atlantic.
We are building partnerships with countries of origin and transit, to fight smugglers and traffickers and to ensure effective returns to their country of origin of migrants with no right to stay in the EU.
The key to effective management of illegal migration lies in the interaction between these two pillars.
A strong and effective legal framework offered by the Pact on Migration and Asylum.
And targeted action to further protect our borders, disrupt and destroy the operations of smugglers and work with third countries on mutually beneficial partnerships.
