Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-14-Speech-3-345"
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"en.20000614.13.3-345"2
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"This paper from the Commission paves the way for a drastic extension to the opportunities for implementing binding EU legislation. It is a leap forward in the development of the Union, and that is what is behind my wishing to remind you of a simple fact, namely that the root cause of the asylum problem is social breakdown in countries in the vicinity of the EU. East, and especially south, of the EU’s borders, an increasing majority of people live in a sea of social destitution and political oppression, and it is that which triggers the asylum problem. The EU is the region’s superpower – economically, politically and militarily. Political breakdown in neighbouring countries in the Balkans and in North Africa is the EU’s responsibility. It is not just a question of passivity and sins of omission. It is a question of the EU and the Member States having, by virtue of economic hegemony, political dominance and military power, contributed actively to the forms of social breakdown that turn our fellow human beings into refugees. Do the EU’s institutions and Member States now want to change these basic conditions? No, for these are the EU’s very rationale. Is the main message of the Commission’s working document and of the report we have before us that there is a willingness to do something about the core problem? No. Nor are Christian love of neighbour and human solicitude, or even just general decency, the pivotal factors. This document is another building block – and an important one – in that Fortress Europe we are constructing with all the means at our disposal to keep our wretched neighbours out in the cold. It is not a question of our being obliged to guarantee legal rights to our fellow human beings. Rather, we ought to be exercising justice in the sense of sharing the burden fairly, with the rich countries giving in accordance with their abilities. We should not regard refugees as interested parties. Moreover, the flow of refugees is limited."@en1
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