Antonio Costa

Functional responsibility for the repeated efforts of the European Council from 11/2015-present to rhetorically marginalize refugees.

This includes:

• efforts to frame the refugee crisis not as a humanitarian issue but as a matter of border control. E.g., the December 2015 Council conclusions stressed the need to “regain control over the external borders. (See European Council Report, 2015 - Valletta Summit). Likewise, in February 2016, the Council emphasized its dissatisfaction with the “slow” pace of regaining control of external borders and highlighted the “necessity” to act swiftly on limiting migration. (See European Council Report, 2016). In addition, the Bratislava Declaration of September 2016 reiterated the need to “ensure full control of external borders” (See European Council Report, 2016)

• efforts to frame the refugee crisis as a matter of "illegal migration,” a phrase used repeatedly, e.g. in the Council conclusions of October 2017 and June 2018 (See European Council Report: 2017: The Libyan Coastguards; European Council Report: 2018)

Functional responsibility for the decisions of the European Council from 11/2015–present

This includes:

• the June 2016 Council conclusions, which expressed its approval of Operation Sophia's involvement in “training the Libyan coastguard.” (See European Council Report, 2016)

• the December 2016 Council conclusions, which emphasized the goal of supporting the Libyan coastguard through Operation Sophia (See European Council Report, 2016)

• the 2017 Malta conference, at which Council members called for EU to "train, equip and support the Libyan national coast guard" (See European Council Report: 2017: The Libyan Coastguards)

• the June 2018 conclusions, which called on “all vessels... not [to] obstruct operations of the Libyan coastguard.” (See European Council Report: 2018)