(Brussels) “At a time of an increasingly divisive rhetoric against vulnerable people escaping war and persecution, the EU protects those in need and will keep doing that, while striving to bring stability where there is conflict”. This was stated by seven European Commissioners, in a statement for World Refugee Day. The EU has worked to “face and solve the main crises through diplomacy” and to provide “humanitarian assistance and support to refugees, asylum seekers, evacuees inside and outside Europe”, after “showing unprecedented support during the refugee crisis of 2015-2016, when it took in thousands of refugees”, the European Commissioners point out, and granted protection to over 538 thousand people in 2017. In the crises that hit Afghanistan, Colombia, the Horn of Africa, Syria, the Rohingya, the EU joined forces with “international partners”, because “only a global response can deal with challenges”. “Solidarity, shared responsibility, multilateralism and efforts” are the EU’s guiding principles, even in its increasingly close cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to face the Libyan crisis and prepare a Global Compact. The challenges: “establishing safer, more legal routes, and closing dangerous and illegal migration routes”, “rehoming over 50 thousand vulnerable people in the EU”, “reaching agreement on a common asylum system”, “working harder to promote the social inclusion of those who find protection in the EU”.