In Strasbourg on Wednesday 26 October, MEPs broadly condemned the European summit of 20 and 21 October for being impotent and displaying inertia. They also made a negative assessment of the migration policy which, after trade and relations with Russia, formed the third item on heads of states’ agenda.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, welcomed progress in migration since 2015, illustrated by the fall in the number of refugees arriving in the EU, but MEPs pointed to persistent blockages at the Council level and big divisions on "good" proposals on the table, commented Manfred Weber, head of the EPP Group at the European Parliament. He said it was selfishness that was leading the EU towards failure and he wanted a summit that gave guidelines.
Sophie in’tVeld (ALDE, the Netherlands) said it was not fair to talk about success when there were as many people dying in the Mediterranean as before, with 2016 being the most deadly year so far.
Philippe Lamberts (Belgium), speaking on behalf of the Greens/EFA Group, slammed a migration policy that boiled down to pushing people away and closing down borders. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)