Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-066"
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"en.20051012.12.3-066"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, immigration is, together with the fight against terrorism, one of the major emergencies of the new millennium. The events which are taking place again and again, mainly in southern Europe, demonstrate, however, that the European Union is not tackling this phenomenon of our time with sufficient determination.
Too many people believe that this is a problem that concerns only Italy, Spain or Malta. That is not true. Europe has a duty to take responsibility, politically and economically, for what happens along the length of the shores of the Mediterranean, because they represent the external border of the south of the Union. The EU must not, therefore, remain deaf to this appeal, but ought to increase the number of initiatives to tackle the immigration emergency.
This is why it is not enough to tackle the issue by thinking about inevitable and necessary public order initiatives. Although these are important, we have to do much more. Agreements with countries of origin are needed, and we need to go further along the path that was begun in Barcelona and increase investment and initiatives for development. This is why we are increasingly convinced that immigration ought to be one of the European Union’s responsibilities in the future. The words of Commissioner Figel and the initiatives taken by Mr Frattini give us cause for hope.
With regard to the events of recent days it is impossible for us not to forcefully denounce what has happened in Ceuta and Melilla. The Zapatero government was not capable of dealing with the situation, and was not able to tackle an emergency while respecting the human rights of the immigrants who were pressing at the borders. We do not want to see any repetitions of the scenes that have been shown on television in recent days: so many innocent victims, killed through a total inability to tackle the emergency and to know how to combine security and respect for human lives.
Finally, any comparison – and this is my final point – between what happened in Ceuta and Melilla and what happened on Lampedusa is totally unacceptable. The Italian Government, the forces of law and order and the NGOs did not cause anyone to be killed or deported into the desert, but they continue every day to save the lives of dozens and dozens of immigrants who are victims of traders without scruples and pedlars of dreams that turn into tragedies."@en1
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