"Will there be enough political will to push through and read those documents and take this seriously?" One migration policy officer said EU leaders need to understand a recent UNHCR report before reforming the asylum-seeking process.
ADVERTISEMENTA new report from the UN Refugee Agency indicated that more than 70 million people have been displaced around the world due to war, conflict and persecution. Migration continues to be an issue for the EU, and it was briefly addressed at this week's summit in Brussels.
Euronews' Meabh Mc Mahon spoke with Noemi Cascone, a migration policy officer with the European Centre for Development Policy Management, at the 2019 European Development Days. Cascone said the first question when it comes to migration is whether or not EU leaders will take the time to understand the UNHCR report.
"Will there be enough political will to push through and read those documents and take this seriously?" she said.
Cascone said there has been progress since more than one million asylum seekers and migrants came to Europe in 2015.
"When the migration crisis happened in 2015, Europe wasn't ready to deal with all of that," she said. "So now with some years that have passed, the leaders have had some time to work on concepts such as migration and humanitarian issues."
Among the several other subjects on the agenda during this week's summit, EU leaders discussed migration.
According to a document released by the EU Thursday evening, they tried to reach a consensus on the "Dublin Regulation to reform it based on a balance of responsibility and solidarity, taking into account the persons disembarked following Search and Rescue operations."
The Dublin Regulation says that each EU member state is responsible for the examination of an application for asylum.
Watch the video in the player above to hear Cascone give her thoughts on the Dublin Regulation, as well as how migration management differs internally and externally.