Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-27-Speech-2-013"
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"en.20050927.4.2-013"2
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".
Mr President, I am, of course, keen, first of all, to thank our rapporteur for his work. We must support him so that the European Parliament might express a forceful opinion on this crucial issue. The report, which is extremely well-balanced, is a good text upon which to base the drafting of an asylum and immigration policy.
The European Parliament must maintain a strong position in the drafting of this policy. On the eve of the transition to the codecision stage in the area of asylum policy, I call on the Council to restore good faith among the European institutions by demonstrating that it is ready to listen to the European Parliament. As it stands, the Council’s text does not, in fact, really allow harmonisation of the asylum policies to take place at European level. On the contrary, it grants the Member States too many possible derogations and exceptions. Furthermore, these derogations prevent us from attaining a good common denominator; it is, rather, the case that the lowest common denominator is given precedence: the levelling down of the asylum policy in Europe.
Above all, we wish to point out that Europe is truly a land of asylum and that we must protect this humanitarian tradition. Europe’s asylum policy must first guarantee a high level of protection to people seeking asylum, by enhancing their fundamental rights. Are we only aware of just how lucky we all are to have been born in Europe? Well, the principle of so-called ‘super safe’ third countries is unacceptable, since it is a violation of asylum seekers’ rights. Everyone has the right to make an individual request and to have his or her request individually assessed. A person can very easily be persecuted in a country that, on the surface of it, is safe. History has provided us with sufficient evidence of that, if only in the 20th century. The safe country principle can be very dangerous if it is not strictly controlled and, consequently, it would be unacceptable to end up with 25 different lists.
Parliament must also carry out a leading role in the drafting of this list, and we owe it to ourselves to ensure that this right is observed. What do we want? We are calling for people’s dignity to be respected. Let us remember that Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights relates to the right to dignity. Go and visit the refugee detention centres in various Member States and you will be enlightened. Go and visit them and you will be appalled that people could treat refugees in such a fashion. You will be filled with shame, as I was. We must rectify the flaws in the asylum policy. We must protect the refugees. We must also address our people in order to explain to them, and thus to make them understand, the hardship that literally forces these refugees to make their way to Europe."@en1
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