Charles Michel believes the EU should play a more influential role in the Middle East

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Warns of a rebound in illegal migratory flows if the conflict continues

BRUSSELS, Oct. 25 () –

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, believes that the EU “should be much more ambitious in playing a role in the Middle East” and also in “using the tools at its disposal” to “promote stability” because “what is happening in the region is a tragedy for its inhabitants, without a doubt.”

“It is also a tragedy for the rest of the world, because we know that this process is generating global polarization, even within the EU,” Michel admitted in an interview with Europa Press together with other European agencies in the ‘European Newsroom’.

“We are also not complying with the need for a ceasefire in Gaza,” he added, while warning that the situation will generate “more and more migratory flows” and, consequently, a rebound in migratory pressure from the EU, as many people “will be forced to apply for refugee status, but not all will succeed.

In this sense, he has defended that there are “at least two great reasons to be very firm in the request for an immediate ceasefire”: on the one hand, to guarantee “stability, peace and security” and, on the other, to avoid ” further fuel illegal migration and the polarization of societies.

On the other hand, the still president of the European Council, who will be succeeded by the former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa starting in December, advocates a boost to legal migration routes, also to face the demographic challenge facing the Union, at the same time that they fight “against smugglers and traffickers of illegal immigrants.

However, Michel has avoided speaking out for or against the “innovative solution” of deportation centers that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, encouraged European leaders to explore at their meeting on December 17. October.