Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-28-Speech-3-207-000"
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"en.20120328.21.3-207-000"2
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"−
Mr President, sometimes we have to remind ourselves where we came from. If we look at the history of international law on refugees, we see that founding the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 1949, signing the Geneva Convention on refugees in 1951 and the first great effort to resettle refugees, which followed the 1956 revolution in Hungary, were targeted, all of them, at European refugees.
At that time, Europe was the continent of refugees. We Europeans often forget that was the case today when we see refugees arriving from the rest of the world.
We also have to think about the world in which we live. Refugees are the most vulnerable people in the world. Of the several million refugees that exist, the majority want to return home, to their country of origin. Some of them could stay in transit countries with which they sometimes have a cultural or linguistic affinity. However, a small proportion of refugees – estimated at around 200 000 per year by the UNHCR – can neither return home, where their lives would be at risk, nor stay where they are, in countries that are often not signatories of the Geneva Conventions.
They need, therefore, to be given access to a new life in a third country. Resettling refugees is a global, orderly and peaceful effort, in which we should all play our part, and Europe should play its part precisely because it remembers where it came from and its history. Europe currently resettles around 5 000 refugees per year, compared with around 100 000 who are resettled by other countries: the United States, mainly, Canada, Australia, or even new players such as Brazil or Chile. There is a need, then, to get to work, and we have been doing so in recent years. The codecision on the European Refugee Fund (ERF), which we voted on in this House now almost two years ago, introduces new humanitarian priorities with clearer categories; strategic priorities in the European Union’s neighbouring countries, where we could act to resolve critical humanitarian emergencies. It also introduces modulation between the support given to the Member States, so that we can attract all 27 Member States, since only 10 resettled refugees when we started this process and there are now 13 that want to do it.
The journey between two years ago and now, from its start under the Swedish Presidency to its conclusion under the Danish Presidency, has not been easy. During these several presidencies, there have been several obstacles and several moments of anguish in which lives were lost and people waited in refugee camps for longer than we would have wished.
From my point of view and, I believe, that of the European public and of many people in this House and the institutions, this is no way to make laws in life-and-death situations. There is a need, beyond the Treaty of Lisbon, which introduced the codecision procedure, for an interinstitutional agreement delivering clear timetables for making this kind of law.
We cannot delay two years in life-and-death situations. I must therefore thank the Danish Presidency, which has enabled us to conclude this process, on its activity and on the hard work it has done on this dossier; all the more so because Denmark has an opt-out in these areas, so it does not have access to monies from the ERF. It was disinterested work, noble work; as was, in fact, the majority of the work done in Parliament itself too. It is not going too far to remind you that it is not refugees who vote for the Members of this House, who pay your salaries with their taxes or who lead our political parties. However, from Greek Communists to UK Conservatives, there has been a huge alliance to bring this dossier to a good conclusion, for which I am very grateful.
I should like to conclude by reminding you of the Commission itself, where the process was started. To represent the many Commission officials, I should like to mention a person who worked on this dossier for two years and unfortunately passed away when agreement had already been reached but before it was adopted here: our colleague and friend Stefania Pasquetti, whose work, like the work of many people who worked on this dossier, will live on as long as we are able to resettle one more family of refugees; to double or triple the number of refugees settled in the world.
Thank you very much and many thanks to all the people who worked on this dossier."@en1
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