The guest speakers were European Commissioner Ylva Johansson, the Portuguese Minister for Home Affairs, Eduardo Cabrita, and as a member of the European Parliament, Elena Yoncheva. Their interventions highlighted the progress made so far in terms of negotiations on the New Pact proposals, as well as the desirable next steps towards the construction of a more effective European asylum and migration system, safeguarding the fundamental rights of migrants, whether or not they have the right to stay legitimately in the Union.

The Commissioner underlined the idea that we are not in a crisis, that the Union is currently managing migratory flows, but that it has to do more. There must be more solidarity between Member States, easier procedures at the border for returning those not entitled to international protection, combating the various criminal networks through police cooperation and closer and more operational cooperation with strategic third countries, following a solid and positive approach and in a triple win logic. With the gradual resumption of face-to-face meetings of Ministers, it is expected that the major progress made at technical level will be translated into political commitments in the short term, in particular with regard to the establishment of the Asylum Agency.

For his part, Eduardo Cabrita argued that "the stability of these countries is fundamental, not only for themselves but also for Europe". "When we are investing in the education of children in Africa, we are contributing to controlling the levels of migration in the long term. When we invest in health, when we support these countries in areas such as vaccination, we are also working on the stability of these countries, "stressed the MHA.

"We must promote cooperation with third countries to promote legal migration, to combat irregular migration, to combat trafficking in human beings, to promote collaboration in the management of flows and to link visa management with returns and readmissions", added the Minister for Home Affairs, recalling that the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union has already achieved "significant advances in this external dimension, in the relationship with neighbouring countries, in particular with Africa".

On the other hand, the Minister recalled that "external border control is not a problem only for some countries such as Greece, Italy or Spain". " Geopolitics can change the focus and geography of the migration phenomenon", he stressed, giving the latest example on the border of Lithuania with Belarus, due to the political instability in the latter. 

To this end, he defended the importance of a common and enhanced approach to the management of external borders, with FRONTEX as the main actor: "We must strengthen, with full respect for fundamental rights and European legislation, the European Coastguard legislation, in which the new FRONTEX mandate is fundamental".