madam president if mr busuttil had listened to what i said in my introduction he would have heard that i said almost everything that was in his speech but i am happy to repeat it
we are ready to use the funds that we have at our disposal to assist the italian authorities immediately
we are in dialogue with them to identify what kind of help they need
italy has a lot of experience in dealing with different kinds of disasters but they perhaps need help with humanitarian aid for shelter food and medicines and they might also need help with screening assistance and identification
we will put that help at their disposal and we are talking to them about this at the moment
this is a european responsibility and that is why we have to come up with european solutions
we have frontex staff in place but we are also examining the possibility and we are ready of setting up a frontex operation within a very short time but of course we need to discuss the modalities with italy and also with the other countries that might possibly contribute
i am happy that mr busuttil is the rapporteur for frontex so that in the future we will have an even better functioning frontex with amendments
if we had a frontex operation in tunisian waters we would of course need to do this in cooperation with the tunisian authorities
we are not there yet
we are also encouraging the tunisian authorities to take back their nationals who are not in need of international protection
we are looking at the law in this respect as raised by mr tavares and others
we hope that the new democratic government will not have such a law but of course it has to be examined on a case by case basis and looked at carefully
we are also willing to support the tunisian authorities with advice support for border and police management and also with training equipment and funds
easo is still not operational in malta but there is a board functioning and they have said that they can send national teams to italy to help should they wish
we will also discuss it this next week at the foreign affairs council and at the jha council that will meet next week
we are working with unhcr in order to ask them to help in the identification of those in need of international protection and to help us to make analysis for the future
frontex is also involved in doing analysis for the whole region
in tunisia there is of course as most of you have said a very hopeful situation and we all support the democratic development there
lady ashton was there yesterday for discussions with the authorities
we are ready to offer election support to them in carrying out elections
we are discussing different ways to strengthen other kinds of support and to develop and strengthen their democratic development
economic assistance can be provided
we are discussing different mobility programmes and we also need to increase the possibilities for people to come legally to europe
there is also discussion about a donor conference
i agree with mr mauro and others who said that of course we need to look at the whole region
i think many were quite surprised when the berlin wall fell
we did not have an action plan immediately up our sleeve
this situation is a little different but of course people asking for freedom and democracy is something that we in the european union should support
we are reviewing the neighbourhood policy plan because events have made it necessary and we are looking at the whole region in particular egypt but also the other countries in order to maximise the different tools funds and policies that we have at our disposal and to tailor them much more adequately to the recent developments in the region
i am sure we will come back to this debate because the issue is on the agenda and is likely to stay there but i want to assure you once again that the commission is following this very closely
we are ready to assist italy tunisia and other countries affected by this
