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REUTERS
BARCELONA
SPAIN is committed to a joint European response to illegal migration, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday, hours before EU leaders meet in Brussels for an informal summit on the issue.
Sanchez pushed migration up the agenda shortly after he took office earlier this month by accepting the Aquarius, an NGO boat carrying 629 migrants that was blocked from docking in Italy and Malta, sparking an international crisis over how the EU deals with illegal immigration.
"There cannot be a unilateral response. With the Aquarius we made a gesture of solidarity but a humanitarian crisis is one thing and migration policy another. And that migration policy must have a joint, European response," Sanchez told El Pais.
The current crisis over migration policy can be traced, in part, back to a lack of European"solidarity" with countries such as Italy that have borne the brunt of illegal immigration, Sanchez said.
On Saturday, a day after the interview was conducted, Sanchez met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris, where both leaders showed support for a plan to process asylum applicants in closed centres on European soil.
Sanchez also outlined his legislative agenda in his first newspaper interview since taking office following a dramatic ouster of conservative former PM Mariano Rajoy.
Sanchez, whose Socialists have only 84 seats in a 350-seat parliament and may struggle to overturn whole legislation passed by the previous government, suggested reforming previous laws and introducing new legislation to protect vulnerable workers.
In particular, he referred to workers in food delivery company Deliveroo and those in the so-called"gig economy".
Spain would increase social security contributions to fund the struggling pension system, Sanchez said.
