 Mark was appointed Deputy Managing Director for Human Rights Global and Multilateral Affairs at the European External Action Service, the EEAS, which we are probably more familiar with it. He has worked for many years in foreign affairs, so he has a diplomat supreme. Most recently he was ambassador at large for reconstruction and development, dealing in particular with post crisis situations. Now, when you hear that word, post crisis situation, is there ever a time when we're actually post crisis? Are we not always in one, just left one behind or about to start a new one? So that was a difficult enough position. He has a very, very exemplary CV here and I noticed that he was with the directorate of the United Nations and International Organisations head of international affairs at the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment. What Mark is going to talk to us today is about the external aspects of migration. On 1 January 2016, the number of people living in the EU 28 countries who were citizens of non-member states was 20.7 million people, while the number living in the EU 28 who had been born outside of the EU was 35.1 million. So all the countries, but some of them in particular, have very large numbers of people who are not born in the country they're living in. And with that comes a whole set of policies, financial commitments, language, education, all the things that you can imagine. Obviously Germany has 8.7 million, United Kingdom 5.6 million, Italy 5 million, Spain 4.4 million, the population of Ireland, France 4.4 million and so the non-nations in those countries make up 76% of the total numbers. But it's still an issue and though it may be quiet at the moment, we're very pleased today that Mark can come and talk to us and bring us maybe up to date on what is happening in the EAS because you have a huge responsibility in this. So it's over to you now Mark. Thank you very much. Good afternoon everyone. I will say, I read what you wrote about what you were expecting from me. So first the role of the EAS and why such a focus on migration. Of course it's rather obvious because with the wake up call of 2015, migration became a major element of our foreign diplomacy. Since then migration has always been the first theme of every European Council. So that shows the importance of the issue for our leaders and for our public opinion of course. So migration is also, along with human rights, one of the priorities of the European Union Global Strategy which is for foreign affairs and security which is our Bible. It was issued in June 2016 and it's guiding, let's say, the European Action Service work. So basically the EAS in implementing the Global Strategy puts a particular emphasis on migration. We have dedicated division on migration in my directorate, the directorate for global issues, which was not the case two years ago. It's really new. The division was in charge of human security at large, which was a much broader subject. But of course, even for the external aspects, the EAS being the diplomatic arm of the European institutions, has to work hand in hand with the Commission, notably DEFCO, in charge of development assistance near the neighbourhood, home affairs and justice. So for example, because there are others of course, but these are the main, let's say, contributors to the issue of migration, including its external aspects, because of course we need development assistance, we need more technical assistance from these different digits of the Commission. Then the second question, which comes naturally to the mind, is why such a focus on Africa, the answer is also obvious. I mean, in 2015, the Turkish route was the main preoccupation, but we managed to get an agreement with Turkey. And let's say, since that time, the agreement has worked relatively well. And of course, the issue was limited. I don't know if you have the word in English, but it was a specific phenomenon, which is not as a certain significance of course, but is not, let's say, a limited element of the puzzle. So immediately the idea was, the real challenge is the south, our southern neighbourhood, Africa. And there was a summit immediately organised with the African Union in Valletta, end of November, where the main theme was migration. And trying to create a partnership between Europe and Africa on migration. Since then, we've been working with the Valletta Trust Fund, with the partnership framework, I will elaborate on that. With the special task force dedicated to Libya, which is a very specific case, on the issue of migration coming from Africa. But that doesn't mean, of course, that we are, let's say, disregarding the broader picture, because not only we still have an issue with migrations from the east, potentially Syrian refugees were still in the neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon or Jordan. But also we have rather important numbers of Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, who are trying to move to Europe without, let's say, necessarily having the necessary legal status for that. So we have, let's say, put that issue on the agenda of our bilateral relations with all these countries. For example, recently we had a summit in Brussels with Afghanistan and the issue of recognition was, there was a commitment from the Afghans to, let's say, proceed in that regard. With Bangladesh recently we had also a bilateral summit where the issue of what we call the standard operating procedures for admission led to an agreement too, et cetera. So it's important to end, last point, we have made sure that the issue of migration dealt with at the global level and there were two declarations in New York last year, in 2016, one on refugees and one on migrants. And we are now negotiating compacts and for us the key words in the negotiation of these compacts are shared responsibility and solidarity. This is not only a responsibility for Europe, this is an issue for the world at large. Of course we are more vulnerable than other countries but there should be, let's say, a global legal framework for the issue of refugees and migrants. Refugees, of course, upholding the Geneva Conventions and respecting their status while at the same time trying to avoid abuses of these status. And migrants, let's say, have a framework for legal migration and let's say basic principles for the way these migrations are treated. So now I come to the point. So that was to show you that of course we are not considering only the issue of Africa and the Central Mediterranean route. It's a global strategy and we are trying to first respond to the urgency of the situation in our sovereign border but at the same time trying to work on the long term. Work on a long term basis with all potential actors in that regard. So I come to my last and most important point. What are we currently doing? First, what I shall say is that our first short term goal is to save lives. And to protect the human rights of the people involved in migration. Save lives. You've heard probably about the situation of Libya. It's a very difficult situation since, as you know, there are competing authorities in the country and the situation is rather chaotic. In that context, what have we done? We have first deployed Operation Sofia in order to, let's say, help people who are trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in international waters. And then there is the issue of the Libyan territorial waters. So we have a program with the Libyan coast guards where we train them and try to assist them in terms of material, etc. This cooperation has been criticized by a number of NGOs and also by the way our action Libya by the UNHCHR in its last report. But it should be clear that even if the current way the Libyan coast guards are operating is not always perfect, what we are trying to do is to have, let's say, a better functioning system that they are trained and equipped in the right manner. And we had recently a press conference in Brussels this week, beginning of the week, with UNHCR and IOM, the UN organization's agencies working with us. And the representative of the UNHCR insisted that he thought it was the right thing to do. And it's a kind of situation where you are in a difficult situation, whether you do something or you do nothing. But it was clearly of the opinion that it was a good way to save lives at sea. Then there is of course the issue of what's happening in Libya proper. Then in this case also we are trying to assist as much as possible the migrants in, let's say, the most difficult situations which are basically migrants in detention centres. There are some tens of thousands of them out of up to one million migrants in Libya. But most of them have been in Libya for a long time and are well integrated. And even if of course they suffer as the Libyan people of the current situation, most of them are not in, let's say, humanitarian situations. But in the camps there is a serious problem. Most of them are run by the militias and we had very reports of some of them living in very difficult conditions. So UNHCR and IOM accepted to work with us. Of course we financed them, we support them. Within the camps that were accessible to them because you have to be conscious that only a part of those camps are accessible to UNHCR and IOM. And of course in these camps UNHCR and IOM first monitor what's happening and second assist people in that situation, try to convince them that they would better come back to their own countries. And by the way when they're interviewed apparently 80% of them want to go back to their own countries. So it shows also that better knowledge of what's awaiting them if they go that path is an important element of a solution to the problem of illegal migration. So basically that's what we can do in the short term and of course we have also the possibility in the short term to try and dissuade people to go through the route before reaching Libya. For example in Niger where we are helping the Nigerian authority to patrol the border and try to destroy the business model of smugglers and traffickers by making their life so difficult that they can't operate. So that's our objective in the short term. In the mid term we are trying to stabilize the situation by helping countries of origin and transit in sub-Saharan Africa. So that is I would say the core of the Baleta plan of action where the idea is both to secure borders, fight the traffic and by the way try to help them securitise the zone because it's also about fighting terrorism. We mustn't forget that in this operation there could be a win-win-win which is less irregular migration and less migrants risking their life in the process, better results in terms of counter-terrorism and better development of these countries because security is the first condition for their development. So we are helping these countries in helping their military, their policemen and their justice system in order for them to better control their border and have the possibility of efficiently fighting the smugglers and traffickers and also creating awareness and erasing among the population, awareness among the population about what they are risking by migrating. So there are IOM centres in order to, that people get information if they are only starting their migration route for them possibilities to go back and resettle etc etc. And of course there is also another important part and our African partners are very insistent on that and they are right is fighting the root causes of migration, offering jobs and economic opportunities. So it's an important part of the actions of the Valeta Trust Fund, helping the agricultural sector to develop, training people etc etc. This takes place in a fund which is supposed to be an emergency fund which means that the idea has been to reduce as much as possible the time lag between the conception of the project and its implementation on the spot. So for your information we've already committed 2 billion euros of the Valeta Trust Fund which is more than what was the initial amount of the Valeta Trust Fund but now the amount is almost 3 billion so we still have 1 billion to commit. And the disbursements are proceeding a bit more slowly of course, we are talking about development assistance but we are already close to 500 million euros so things are going quite fast if you consider that the first projects were adopted beginning of 2016. The Valeta Plan of Action should be implemented during the phase between now and between 2016 let's say and 2020 so it's a kind of mid-term response. And the long-term answer to our migration issue and the phenomenon of irregular migration is two-fold. First we have the partnership framework which is as I said between the mid-term and the long-term because it's an idea which was developed in the Valeta Plan of Action. At a certain point in time some of our member states said well it's very good to help people and give them job opportunities etc but also it's very good to help and it's in our interest of course helping the police, the military and the justice of these countries. But what are the guarantees that these countries we help us in terms of readmission of irregular migrants and that kind of thing. So the idea was we need something which is a bit more let's say targeted and identify some countries where we have a strategic interest and we're engaging into a political dialogue with the country putting let's say every card on the table will lead us to more concrete and let's say deeper results as regards the issue of migration. So we identified first five countries, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Ethiopia for these partnership frameworks. We have already obtained impressive results with Niger. Notably as regards what's happening in the region of Agades which is the region bordering Libya. The problem of Niger is not really a problem of migration from Niger because Nigerians tend to migrate to Nigeria but not elsewhere in Africa. But there is a very limited migration flow of Nigerian to Europe. But it's a transit country and the central Mediterranean route basically was a route crossing through Niger to Libya and then to the Mediterranean. So we managed to work with a very let's say good willing let's say Nigerian government. The president told us basically we are ready to do our best. We consider that we cannot thrive on a traffic economy obviously because but we have a problem in the region of Agades. The legal economic activity is very limited. It's a desertic region almost desertic let's say where which has suffered badly of desertification in the previous decades and where also the population is growing and cannot get easily sustainable livelihoods. So we worked with them helping them patrolling the zone, mounting also what we call joint investigation teams in order to identify where the traffic to place and who was responsible for the traffic. And also we worked with the local authorities in order to identify development projects in the zone in the area. And I must say we had very good results in terms of the flow diminished drastically in 2017 compared to 2016. It's been reduced something like four times. And also the Nigerian authorities began to actively combat trafficking and I think more than 100 smugglers and traffickers were condemned in 2017. Their vehicle seized etc. So this is beginning to show real results. And also we have organized from Agades of course centers managed by UNHCR, IOM etc. In order to offer opportunities for those want to come back and resettle to come back to their country of origin, helping them financially and also assisting them in terms of information, offering them possibilities of training etc etc. So that's a good example of what the partnership framework could offer. We've over the other countries the results are more mixed. We are currently negotiating for example a red mission agreement with Nigeria. We are having discussions also with Senegal and Mali on that issue. There is the issue of also the standard procedures for red mission. We have been able to with the Ethiopian authorities to obtain red mission for a number of cases where it was clear that some of the illegal migrants we had caught were the citizens. But of course this is more difficult because we these countries are not only countries of transit but countries of origin. So they have a vast population of people having migrating or contemplating the possibility of migrating. And they are representing important lobbies at home and we have to consider that. I mean countries like Senegal and Mali for example are democracies and they have to balance their risk of let's say a tougher migration policy. We nevertheless think it's a good approach because only let's say a 360 approach which is about having a strategic partnership with these countries can provide a solution to the problem of irregular migrations. These countries get a lot of money from remittances obviously. So it's not only about development assistance compensating for their remittances because we don't have the amounts necessary to do that. But at the same time they're afraid of what's happening in terms of security. They want our assistance in that regard. They're willing to have a good relation with Europe in general and if we can offer them the prospect of economic development they will certainly be interested. So that's let's say the gist of what this partnership framework concept is is that migration should not be something that with a part but it's a part of a broader picture of our relations with these countries. And last what we are currently doing for the long term is the external investment plan. I don't know if you heard about this new instrument in our toolbox. It's the idea is to use the leverage effect of loans. So we are currently committing 4.1 billion euros for Africa and the neighborhood. And this 4 bit more than 4 billion euros should be able to mobilizing total around 44 billion euros. We have let's say mainly two main instruments. One is the what we call blending. We by topping up money coming from the private sector we lower the cost of the loans and allow projects in terms of infrastructure for example to develop. That's the first part. It's not the most original one that existed already and the second one is the guarantee. So we have what we call the European Fund for Sustainable Development which is providing a guarantee to private initiatives by all let's say market initiatives because you can imagine to have companies with public ownership but which are the idea is developing creating jobs and opportunities but in a larger scale as is the case in the Valletta plan of action. So consider that Valletta is let's say when it deals with developing jobs etc as a more limited spectrum of course and is more pilot in the sense that we know that what we do in terms of creating jobs and opportunities within the Valletta framework within the Valletta plan of action is not at the height of what is necessary. But with the European Investment Plan we can go further by offering a guarantee to the private investor and by differentiating the level of the guarantee according to the respective situation of different countries because of course it's much more difficult to invest in Niger than it is to invest in Côte d'Ivoire or South Africa. So we think we will be able to create opportunities and it's very important because we still have a very important problem which is politically a very delicate one is the demographic boom that Africa is currently experiencing. And it's interesting in that regard to note that the country with the highest buff rate in the world is Niger with almost eight children per woman and Mali is not far from that with seven so that means that probably it's another issue we will have to address in the long run. Of course we know it's a delicate issue. The local governments are progressively let's say becoming conscious of the demographic time bomb that they have on their shoulders. In the case of Niger it's interesting because President Isufu said that it was a really important issue and it will be one of his priorities during his last discord investiture. I mean the speech he made for his new term in the Nigerian presidency so that's not part of the current issue. That's not part of Valletta or etc. But it's something to keep in our mind when a country like Niger with limited natural resources as a population which doubles every 16 years there is a problem.