Event report

As part of the UEF project “Crossroads Europe”, co-financed by the Europe for Citizens programme, an online event was organised to discuss the EU’s migration and asylum policy, as well as the surrounding public debate. The event was attended by 53 participants. The event consisted of two different discussions. The first part focused on the EU’s policies around migration and how they could be addressed efficiently. For this, different speakers shared their views and experience: MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar, chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Regina Catrambone, co-founder and director of Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), Apostolos Veizis, executive director of INTERSOS Greece, and Paloma Favieres from Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR). Some ideas expressed were that the EU should find a way to tacke the most controversial problems within the migration system, such as the relocation of migrants as well as the distribution of responsibilities between the Member states. The discussion was followed by a training on how to use the digital platform of the Conference of the Future of Europe. The second session was a discussion on the media and how it frames the phenomenon of migration in Europe. Various speakers were invited to lead the debate: Manuel Delia, a blogger and journalist at The Times of Malta, Xandru Cassar, student activist, and Laura Traveso, Communication Manager at Red Acoge. The speakers expressed that most of the media in Europe tends to frame migrants as ‘others’ and foreigners as well as uses rhetoric, which forms an impression of migration being a thing, rather than talking about real human beings. Afterward, participants of the event were actively involved in a workshop on how to make the EU fit for the migration phenomenon of our times, where they produced policy recommendations.