(L-R) António Leitão Amaro, Portuguese Minister of the Presidency, responsible for migration; Léon Gloden, Luxembourg's Minister for Home Affairs;
Credit: © Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Luxembourg's Minister for Home Affairs, Léon Gloden, participated in the ministerial conference on implementation and operationalisation of the EU Pact on Asylum and Migration, held in Ghent, Belgium from Monday 29 to Tuesday 30 April 2024.
As reported by Luxembourg's Ministry of Home Affairs, the purpose of the conference was to discuss the coordinated implementation of the recently adopted Migration and Asylum Pact.
Following a presentation by EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson on the pact's implementation process for the coming months, EU ministers of interior and migration had an exchange of views on the coordination and organisation of implementation across bilateral and multilateral channels. Minister Gloden reiterated Luxembourg's full support for the Migration and Asylum Pact and stressed that the Grand Duchy continues to attach great importance to the political ownership of the Council in the implementation efforts, as well as to the question of the effectiveness of the European returns policy. According to the minister, the new liability rules and the reform of the Eurodac system (European system for comparing fingerprints of asylum seekers) will contribute to making the future shared European system more efficient and to reducing secondary movements within the EU. At the same time, Minister Gloden stressed that the future solidarity mechanism must meet the real needs of Member States.
Several Member States subsequently shared their good practices, as well as lessons learned from their previous experiences. In his speech, Minister Gloden emphasised the importance of accelerated procedures and administrative cooperation between Member States. He noted that "mutual trust constitutes a cornerstone of our system, and good cooperation between all Member States will undoubtedly contribute to its strengthening".
On the sidelines of the ministerial conference, Minister Gloden spoke with the French Secretary of State for Citizenship and Urban Affairs, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, about the management of migratory flows and the fight against organised crime. The Luxembourg minister also had a meeting with the Portuguese Minister of the Presidency (responsible for migration), António Leitão Amaro. This exchange highlighted the long-standing bilateral friendship and the largely convergent positions of Luxembourg and Portugal, concluded the Luxembourg ministry.
