Hungarian soldiers build the first section of the fence to prevent illegal migrants from entering Hungary through the border between Hungary and Serbia near Morahalom, Southern Hungary, July 16, 2015. A 175-km-long, 4-meter-high fence along Hungary's full border with Serbia will be in place by Nov. 30, according to local media. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe announced on Wednesday that its next session, to be held in Strasbourg, will focus on migration and discrimination issues in Europe.
These two subjects have already been at the center of current events, dominating political debates across Europe, with incoming migrant flows at record levels. Just this Wednesday, a boat carrying several hundred migrants sank off the coast of Libya. The Italian Coast Guard announced at the end of the afternoon that rescue operations had allowed 400 people to survive.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates over 2,000 people have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean sea, up from 1,607 deaths during the same period in 2014. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, an average of 1,000 refugees arrive on Greek islands every day, with countries such as Italy, Spain, and Turkey also experiencing heavy levels.
Strasbourg, as the seat of the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Europe (CoE), has become a center of the ongoing discussions on the subjects.
In June, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in the Alsatian capital and urged parliamentarians to act on "the common responsibility to act before more lives are lost."
Immigrants shout slogans during an anti-racist protest in Athens, Greece, March 22, 2014. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
There have also been protests, with a "boat of migrants" appearing in June to demonstrate outside the Strasbourg seat of the EP during its June plenary session. The organizers said they aimed to highlight poor European migratory policy.
In July, however, during its last plenary session, the EP voted to approve extra funding of around 70 million euros (about 77 million U.S. dollars) in order to boost the infrastructure needed to cope with the migration flows. The money will be spent on agencies managing migration flows into the European Union (EU), and also channeled into two EU funds for migration measures.
Despite political deals, however, migrant deaths continue to rise.
Discrimination, another pressing European concern, will be another main topic for the CoE Congress's 2015 autumn session. A rise in anti-Semitic acts has been cause for alarm throughout Europe, as well as discrimination against Muslims and recent migrants.
The CoE also appealed in July for renewed action to combat discrimination against Europe's Roma population, in advance of the Aug. 2 commemoration of the deaths of over 3,000 Roma in a gas chamber in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The 29th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which will run from Oct. 20-22, will feature debates on guidelines for local authorities on dealing with the ongoing migration crisis that has left Europe politically divided and struggling to cope with the influx.
The Congress has 648 members who hold elected office and represent over 200,000 local and regional authorities across the 47 member states of the CoE.