Simon Busuttil (PPE-DE). – Mr President, I want to congratulate Mr Pirker for his excellent report and I am also glad to hear that the Commission supports the call of my country, Malta, for a fairer share of responsibility, even with respect to the Dublin Regulation. In fact, any review of the Dublin Regulation must surely take into account the unintended effects of the current rules, whereby countries such as mine are being obliged to carry a disproportionate responsibility simply because they are border Member States.

To establish a fairer division of responsibility we need to ensure that solidarity is truly rendered meaningful. So far, it has to be said that in EU policymaking ‘solidarity’ has always meant granting financial assistance. Now this is no longer sufficient. We need to go beyond that. A true meaning of solidarity must also mean something beyond throwing money at the problem; beyond merely writing a cheque. It must also mean sharing the burden, sharing the responsibility. It must also mean opening up our borders to share with border Member States the responsibility of dealing with asylum seekers and others who make it often perilously, but alas illegally, to EU territory. So in reviewing Dublin, I agree with the report that we need a fairer share of the burden.

Finally, one issue regarding timing: we are discussing the establishment of a common asylum system by 2010. However, we all know that a common asylum system is not needed in 2010. It is urgently needed today. So we should ask ourselves, how many lives will be lost before 2010? How many things will go wrong before Member States rise above their national egotism and get there?