Brussels, Feb. 4, 2021 (Lusa) - Eduardo Cabrita, Portugal's minister of the internal administration, said on Thursday he was willing to visit the asylum camps "wherever necessary", whether on the Greek islands or the Canaries, to verify and support the EU's common actions.

He said that "just as I was in the Greek islands two years ago, I will be in the Canary Islands as the presidency of the Council of the EU requires to verify and support joint actions in this area".

In response to a question from Socialist MEP Isabel Santos on how the Portuguese presidency intends to ensure that the asylum applications processing is more expeditious, he said that "we need to move forward on several issues" which are in a state of completion in the legislative process.

In this context, Cabrita stressed the need to "move forward with the EURODAC regulation" - which establishes a database of asylum seekers' fingerprints - also giving examples of the new European Asylum Support Office (EASO) regulation and the revision of the 'Blue Card' directive, which establishes the conditions of immigration to the EU for qualified workers.

Concerning the "mobilisation of responsibility-sharing mechanisms in border management", Cabrita stressed the need to "assess the time needed and the means necessary to ensure that nobody is forgotten in refugee camps over the years without their situation defined".

The minister for internal administration also said that the debate on the Pact for Migration and Asylum - presented by the European Commission in September 2020 - would be one of the priorities of the Portuguese presidency, pointing out that Portugal would seek to "promote the deepening" of the technical debate on the issue and try to "go as far as possible in the debate on the various legislative instruments".

Cabrita specified the three axes on which Portugal will seek to focus the discussion: the external dimension of migration, sharing responsibility for common border management and sharing solidarity between the Member States.

He stressed that "there are several countries" which consider that "nothing is agreed" on the issue of migration management until "everything is agreed", Cabrita said he "counts on the European Parliament" to make progress in various legislative procedures.

He concluded by saying that "we are counting on the Portuguese presidency, in dialogue with Parliament but with the support of Parliament, to make progress on the legislative front but, above all, to contribute to the rapprochement that will enable us to reach a political agreement on this issue".

TEYA/ADB // ADB.

Lusa