The acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has called for "a global approach to immigration for the entire Mediterranean" that does not differentiate by geographical criteria between States responsible for the first reception and others that can choose if they exercise voluntary solidarity.
Acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has defended before his European colleagues that "Spain considers an equitable distribution of responsibility and a global approach to immigration for the entire Mediterranean indispensable and indispensable".
Grande-Marlaska has held this position at the Informal Meeting of the Council of Ministers and Home Affairs of the European Union (JHA) which was held in Helsinki (Finland) on the occasion of the beginning of the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
"The Mediterranean requires immediate attention because at sea there are no borders to control but people to rescue, a complete response needs to combine two axes: shared responsibility on the one hand, and the need for a global approach on the other," said Grande -Marlaska.
The Spanish minister has called on his counterparts in the European Union countries to provide lasting solutions to migratory flows in the Mediterranean, insisting that "in the face of a structural phenomenon, temporary solutions based on voluntary solidarity do not fit."
"At the European internal level, it is necessary to avoid the establishment of a system that divides the Member States between those who are 'responsible' for the first reception and those who are simply 'supportive', taking into account geographic criteria. Schengen to carry out that fictitious distribution of responsibility and solidarity ", has defended Grande-Marlaska.
The Minister of the Interior recalled that rescue and rescue operations at sea are an obligation of international law that the States with maritime external border of the EU can not and should not ignore. However, he added that, based on European principles and the concept of a single common border, the responsibility for the landing and treatment of those rescued must be shared by the European Union as a whole and not only by a few Member States.
In this sense, Grande-Marlaska has advocated cooperation policies with countries of origin and transit on migration, especially with Morocco, as a more effective tool to reduce the flow of migration
"The work we do in the beginning, the cooperation with our partners and their positive result is the only sign of the good progress of our immigration policy," said the head of the Department of the Interior.
Police cooperation
The future of the EU in terms of security has also been addressed in this Informal Council of Ministers of the Interior. Grande-Marlaska has defended the need to strengthen operational police cooperation and the role of European agencies in support of the Member States to make the Union a free and safe space.
The acting Minister of the Interior has stated that, in an increasingly interconnected world, security policies must adapt to major technological challenges and to new realities such as artificial intelligence or the need to guarantee a balance between security and privacy.
"The fight against crime must take into account the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, it is up to us to try to take advantage of the potential it offers us in its most positive aspect: only an artificial intelligence that respects the values and ethical principles in which the EU is based and that governing our coexistence can be considered adequate and safe, "said Grande-Marlaska.
In this regard, he highlighted the need to begin to establish the legal framework and the application of artificial intelligence, as well as to equip the security forces with advanced media.
The minister has given as an example the experience of Spain when using artificial intelligence to improve security, highlighting the success of tools such as the VERIPOL application to detect false complaints, or the Comprehensive Monitoring System for cases of Gender Violence. -System VioGén.
On the importance of the EU Agencies in this panorama of cooperation, Grande-Marlaska has stated that they must play a fundamental role in two aspects: first, by collaborating in the detection of the threats and by providing the Member States with permanent information on the state of their situation and evolution; and, secondly, coordinating information and response activities of European countries.