The UN global compact on migrations is a key platform for cooperation in solving the problem of migrations in Europe, officials of the European Council and the European Commission said on Tuesday in Strasbourg.

United Nations’ global pact on migrants, dubbed the Marrakech agreement, aims to boost international cooperation in addressing the growing number of migrants globally. 

“In our globalised world, human mobility can only be effectively addressed by the international community as a whole. It is a global phenomenon that requires global solutions,” said the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides.

“Together we can set up a human, dignified, and secure mechanism for governing human mobility,” he said.

UN members have adopted the global compact on migrations in July, but some have pulled out of the agreement in the meantime, such as Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria, while Poland and the Czech Republic are still on the fence on whether they would confirm the agreement.

The so-called Marrakech agreement has caused tensions in Croatia as well, between the government and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, with Grabar-Kitarovic first announcing she would support the pact, but then backing out, while the Foreign Ministry said they see nothing contentious in the document.

Some MEPs warned on Tuesday that the agreement, although not legally binding, jeopardises the countries’ sovereignty.

The agreement presents migrations as a positive phenomenon. It conflates economic migrants with refugees, and presents illegal migrations as a human right. Legal interpretations of that could lead to irreversible consequences which are neither in the interests of Europeans, nor the people in the developing world who are being promised a better life, said Hungarian MEP Kinga Gál, member of the conservative Fidesz party led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Fidesz is part of the European People’s Party (EPP) Group in the European Parliament.

MEPs from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats have criticised Austria and other conservative EU governments, saying the only way to solve the issue of migrations was through multilateral agreements.

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