Christoph Heusgen

As German sherpa, Heusgen likely played a central role in negotiating the decisions of the European Council in the relevant time period. Merkel's sherpas accompanied her to nearly every appointment and would pre-negotiate every document before the heads of state meetings in Brussels (See Germany report Chapter A.II.b). Thus: shared responsibility for European Council decisions.

This includes:

• the Council's decision in the summer of 2014 not to "europeanize" Mare Nostrum and its tacit agreement with the establishment of Triton (See: European Council report: 2014: Mare Nostrum).

• the Council conclusions in March 2015, which called for “strengthening Triton" (See European Council Report, 2015 – Operation Triton).

• the Council conclusions in April 2015, which increased funds for Operations Triton and Poseidon without meaningfully expanding the operation’s search and rescue activities (See European Council Report, 2015 – Operation Triton).

Shared responsibility for the decisions of the European Council, including the Council conclusions in April 2015, which asked the Commission to lay the groundwork for an anti-smuggling operation, which would become Operation Sophia (See European Council Report, 2015 – Operation Triton).

Shared responsibility for the repeated efforts of the European Council 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 (See European Council Report: 2017: The Libyan Coastguards)

Shared responsibility for the decisions of the European Council

This includes:

• November 2015 Action Plan decided at the Valletta Summit, which launched the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa to assist with “migration management projects" and thus created a financial tool for the future trainig of the LYCG (See European Council Report, 2015 - Valletta Summit).

• 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)

Shared responsibility for the decisions of the European Council, including November 2015 Action Plan decided at the Valletta Summit, which laid the groundwork for sharing maritime surveillance data with Libya.  (See European Council Report, 2015 – Valletta Summit)

Shared responsibility for the decisions of the European Council from 12/2013 until present, including the November 2015 Action Plan decided at the Valletta Summit, which launched the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa to assist with “migration management projects” and thus created a financial tool for the future training of the LYCG (See European Council Report, 2015 – Valletta Summit).