“I believe there are two mistakes we must not make when discussing the global compacts” the EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini said, while addressing the plenary session of the European Parliament on the preparation of the Marrakech Intergovernmental Conference of 10-11 December on the UN Global Compact for Migration.

“The first is to pretend there is a clash between our national interests and the idea of a global compact. The opposite is true. If our national interest is to govern migration – and I believe it is for all of us – to make it orderly, humane and sustainable, then the global compact is a powerful tool to serve our national interest” Mogherini continued.

“The second mistake would be to tackle migration as a fight between the North and the South of the world, the developed and the developing countries. Again, the opposite is true”

The diplomat indicated that the most of the countries – for instance in Africa – are at the same time countries of “origin, of transit and of destination”. “We all share an interest to manage migration; we all have an interest in investing in sustainable development in the regions that need it the most; and we all have an interest in creating regular pathways for human mobility”,- Mogherini concluded, insisting there is no conflict between North-South, but common need to harness the problem in a unified manner.

However there is no unity among the EU members on the issue. The latest ‘no’ to the UN project came from the Slovak Parliament, and caused resignation of the Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak has decided to quit in protest to this decision to reject a UN pact on the treatment of migrants, his office said.

Lajcak was President of the United Nations General Assembly when the migration pact was adopted and had earlier threatened to quit if his country did not support it.

NB! Correction to the map: Croatia will not sign UN Global Compact for Migration, because the majority of lawmakers in the Parliament said that they would not support the Compact because it was “unclear and ambiguous“.

Nowadays there are over 258 million migrants around the world living outside their country of birth. This figure is expected to grow for a number of reasons including  population growth, increasing connectivity, trade, rising inequality, demographic imbalances and climate change. Critics claim that the non-binding document declares economic migration as a human right which means giving up a state’s sovereignty while supporters of the Compact claim that it will improve international management of migrant waves and strengthen the protection of human rights.