An ALDE delegation is today travelling to Valleta, Malta, to meet with representatives from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), Malta's Home Affairs Minister, as well as with agencies in charge of open and closed centres, police, and NGOs working in the field of asylum and migration in Malta. The official two-day visit of the ALDE delegation coincides with the European Commission presentation of its European Agenda on migration. 

The ALDE MEPs will meet with the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office to discuss proposals to scrap the Dublin criteria and introduce a distribution quota that allows Member states to share the responsibility of accepting asylum requests. 
The MEPs will also meet with the Maltese authorities including the Home Affairs Minister, the refugee Commissioner and agencies responsible for the processing of asylum claims and the welfare of asylum to discuss the shortcomings of the common European Asylum System and how the Commission's proposals would help them. 

As Malta is a 'frontline' member state for the recent tragedies in the Mediterranean, the MEPs will also meet the Armed Forces of Malta and the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) to discuss search and rescue operations and what actions should be taken at EU level. Finally there will be an exchange of views with a number of NGOs working in the field to see their perspectives on how the Commission's plans would be put into practice". 

The ALDE delegation is composed by the following MEPs: 

•    Sophie In´ t Veld (D66, The Netherlands)
•    Cecilia Wikström (FP, Sweden)
•    Angelika Mlinar (NEOS, Austria) 
•    Nathalie Griesbeck (UDI-Modem, France)
•    Petr Jeżek (ANO 2011, Czech Republic) 

Note to editors 
On the 24 April, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament presented an ALDE Blueprint for a new European agenda on migration. The ALDE proposal calls for a centralised common European Asylum System, a new European policy on Economic migration, a new EU Blue card system that acts as an EU wide work permit and safe and legal routes to entry the EU. 
Please find the link to our strategy here.