(AP) Portugal started consultations Tuesday with other European Union countries to find common ground for a new policy on migration, which has caused humanitarian crises and deep political divisions in the bloc over how to respond.
Portugal, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency for the first half of this year, is working on a concept of “flexible, mandatory solidarity” between countries, according to a statement from the office of Portuguese Home Affairs Minister Eduardo Cabrita.
Defining what that concept entails is Portugal’s goal for a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on Jan. 28, the statement said.
But migration from outside the EU requires the bloc’s members to stand together, and “solidarity cannot be voluntary,” the statement said.
