Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-23-Speech-3-180-000"
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"en.20110323.19.3-180-000"2
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"−
Mr President, refugees are probably the most vulnerable populations in the world and, of them, the most vulnerable of the vulnerable are those who can neither return home nor stay in the countries of transit. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees puts a figure on that population: 200 000 refugees per year. We know that half this number are resettled by the United States and other players, and we know that Europe does too little: 4 500 per year.
We all agree, therefore, that the tragedy of the refugees is urgent and important. How important is it? The Council itself has already answered this question. The Swedish Presidency talked about resettling 100 000 per year and the Belgian Presidency, at the end of its own term said – we had Prime Minister Yves Leterme here –that refugees were the image of the European Union’s very
. Excuse me for saying so, but refugees are important for the Hungarian Presidency for historical reasons because it was for Hungary, in 1956, that the first concerted effort was made by the international community to resettle thousands of refugees.
In the end, however, how urgent is the tragedy of the refugees? Unfortunately, it is this question that we are forced to ask the Council. How much of a priority are refugees for the Council? Are they urgent enough to finally put a signature, to finally add a signature to a piece of paper? A year ago, Parliament voted in favour of two reports, one of which was a co-decision on the European Refugee Fund. The vast majority of us united behind what was important: from the Greek Communists to the British Conservatives. We did our homework. A year later we are still waiting for the Council. The co-decision process has transformed into a co-indecision process. This co-indecision process would be ridiculous if it were not so tragic for the people on the ground.
The report that we adopted included emergency measures to be applied in addition to the Commission’s annual priorities. We did this because we know that a humanitarian crisis can erupt at any time. One has just erupted in North Africa, on our doorstep, and we do not have these emergency measures ready to be implemented. We do not have them because the Council has unfortunately not finished this co-decision.
Moreover, from the first day that it was completed, we would have, in addition to these emergency procedures, extra money for countries wishing to start carrying out resettlement, and clear categories for priorities to be used by the Member States. We would also have everything that we put into the own-initiative report: quality, speed and the creation of a resettlement unit in the European Asylum Support Office.
Members of the Council, you – I am finishing here, Mr President – are co-legislators. It is not for us to tell the Council how to legislate, but this desk-drawer veto helps no one, especially the institutions’ credibility."@en1
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