Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-12-Speech-2-010-000"
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"en.20120612.4.2-010-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr Bødskov, some said that I would have a hard time today, with a social democratic government and presidency, but you have made it very easy for me. Everything that you have said, we are opposed to. We had an extensive discussion within the group yesterday and we concluded in unison that we are strongly opposed to what you have done. We reject the position that you have just expressed.
The S&D Group, like the other groups in this House, is unanimous, and we will pursue all avenues – political and legal – to fight against what you have begun. You are opening a door to right-wing populism in Europe. I am sorry that it is the Danish Presidency that is opening this door.
The Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament takes a clear view that you have gone down the wrong road, and a dangerous one at that. You have the experience of Denmark. Did you not learn anything from your predecessors in office, from how the government came under pressure from right-wing populists? You should surely have learned that that is not the right way to go! Unfortunately, you learnt nothing.
May I come back, now, to the quoted reasons for this move? We were told that there was a mass stampede of Tunisians to Europe. That was the origin of this debate. Mr Berlusconi and Mr Sarkozy agreed that they simply had to close the borders, as if that would solve the problem! So, where are these millions of refugees in Europe all of a sudden, the ones to which you have to react, Mr Bødskov? Instead, we have something else. The Europeans intervened in Libya, an intervention I fully supported. Millions of refugees fled from Libya to Tunisia. Because, as before, there are many Libyan refugees in Tunisia, does that mean that we might have to close our borders, or make it easier to do so? Is that our response to the Arab Spring? That is the wrong answer, Mr Bødskov, absolutely the wrong answer.
I agree that there is a problem – a problem on the border between Turkey and Greece. So, then, should we close our borders, because that is the only way to solve that problem? Is there no one left in this Europe who argues that we need to show solidarity, we need to help ensure that this border is made secure against illegal immigrants? Has it, then, become the custom in Europe to respond to populist demands? Does the Danish Presidency also go along with this? That, if you ask me, is a scandal, and we find it unacceptable.
You then have the gall to come here and tell us that we should actually be grateful to you for preventing something worse from happening. Is that your impression of the European Parliament, that we would get down on the floor and say ‘Thank you, Presidency, you prevented permanent new borders in Europe’?
I know why the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers locked out Parliament. It did so because this institution, together with the Commission – and I would like to add my thanks to the Commissioner – has always been the institution that has defended the European accomplishment that is freedom of movement. We have defended it in many debates. Given that you know that there would be opposition here in Parliament if borders were to be closed again without reason, you have removed from Parliament the right of codecision in the evaluation. If you listen to some Justice and Home Affairs ministers – and I am thinking of some quite specific people – then you know how the land lies, and then you know people’s reasons for wanting this. Indeed, a few of the ministers want to have more options to close borders before elections – as was the case in Denmark – or on other occasions. That is the reason, and we reject it."@en1
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