Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-11-25-Speech-2-465-000"
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"en.20141125.29.2-465-000"2
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"Madam President, the context for this oral question could not be more powerful and more precipitous. We have, approaching the Chair, our new Commissioner, Commissioner Avramopoulos, for his first debate. He is just about to take the Chair. We have in the Council Mr Gozi, the Italian Presidency of Mare Nostrum, which will shortly move to Operation Triton. Unfortunately, the inadequate sticking plaster which sees good people trying to save migrants in the Mediterranean could not prevent three thousand migrants from drowning in 2014 alone.
Earlier this day, we heard His Holiness saying to us, in an excellent speech, that we cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery. But he also said, in a very mature passage, that we need a united response to the question of migration based on a recognition of the human dignity of immigrants. It was a very mature response, which also talked about the causes and effects of migration. Colleagues, it is in that spirit that we talk about our oral question today in front of the Commissioner and in front of the Council. This is not the first time that we talk about this issue. It is after many, many oral questions.
Colleagues, we have the tools to do the job – of course we do. In the final paragraph of our oral resolution we talk about the common European Asylum System. How many times have we talked about it? How many trilogues have we had? How many pieces of directives and laws have we put together? Of course we have the tools to do the job. The issue is one of solidarity, and the issue is one of political action.
We have something to say to the Commission and to the Council today, and particularly, Mr Gozi, to the Council, not to the Presidency – because within the Presidency we have had Mare Nostrum, which has saved 150 000. It is the Council which is not implementing the common European Asylum System. So I direct this primarily to the Council: we do not have solidarity. And that is why we had that powerful moral message earlier today. In our search and rescue obligations – the first part of our oral question which I put to both of you – we have moved from Mare Nostrum to Triton the inadequacy of that programme.
Secondly, when we talk about broadening the activities of Frontex and Triton, we have an inadequacy. First we have to ask that question. The European Commission does its best, but if we do not have the Member States working together, we do not have adequate burden sharing.
Then we have development of safe and legal routes. What does that mean? It means what His Holiness was talking about: causes and effects, the push and pull factors, and a common resettlement policy. I attended the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Milan, and there was clearly no real resettlement policy with real burden sharing across the Member States, since it was not equal across the Member States. When we talk about the context – and we will hear many Members talk about the context – please remember that, despite the austerity that we have, the top ten countries receiving refugees today from Syria and elsewhere are all among the world’s developing countries. Not one country in the top ten countries receiving refugees today is a European Union country – they are all developing countries. So let us put that into context. Yes, we are generous, but we are not there amongst the developing countries of the world taking the biggest burden.
So let us remember that President Juncker, in his opening statement, talked about adequate legal migration channels. So we have to be brave and courageous in actually saying what that will mean. Not perhaps today, but let us refresh our vision about what that will mean.
So colleagues, yes, emergency funds, migration and asylum border control, fighting smuggling and trafficking, EU foreign and development policy, what we do about common standards for reception procedures and qualifications – all of that is vital. But the key point, and I put this both to the Commission and Council – and particularly to the Council – is that we do not have implementation of our Common Asylum System. The purpose of the oral question today is not that the Parliament has not done its job – we have done our job. Rather, the point is that we can do more. I address this to my colleagues in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and across Parliament.
What I would propose is that we say to the Council: implement what we have and stop people dying in the Mediterranean. But we should also have our inquiry to ensure that pressure is put on the Council, that we have resources put into an inquiry or an investigation into what is happening, so that we can look citizens in the eye and ensure that they know that we as a Parliament are doing everything possible to ensure that Mediterranean deaths are not happening week in and week out, and that we have a managed migration system that is worthy of our Parliament. We have to show our moral compass and what we are doing about our refugee and asylum policy."@en1
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