MEPs were unable to support Juan Fernando López Aguilar’s (S&D, Spain) request to call on the European Commission to legislate on humanitarian visas on Wednesday 14 November. They rejected this request by not giving the rapporteur the required absolute majority with 349 votes against 199 and 47 abstentions. They needed at least 375 votes in favour to pass this request.
The Spanish MEP attacked his colleagues by accusing some of them of withdrawing at the last minute in order not to vote, but also by referring to the possibility of technical error. According to him, this would apply to "60 MEPs who abstained during the vote". He has asked for a new vote on Thursday 15 November, at the very beginning of the session. However the Conference of Presidents (the European Parliament’s political group leaders) ruled on the morning of Thursday 15 November that the process should start again in the Civil Liberties Committee, probably as an urgent procedure making it possible for it to return to plenary very quickly, perhaps as early as the second session in November or December, a source from the LIBE Committee indicated.
The Spaniard had reiterated again on Wednesday at a press conference that "it's shameful and hypocritical". He recalled that 30,000 people have died at sea since the beginning of the migration crisis and that in more than 90% of cases, those seeking asylum in the EU have all arrived illegally.
"They had no choice," he added, because there is no "legal channel” for migration and this system of humanitarian visas is "one that many NGOs have called for”.
This would consist of issuing these humanitarian visas in Member States' embassies and consulates outside the EU, thus allowing people fleeing conflict situations or violence to apply directly for asylum in the territory of the country of issuance, without risking their lives. The MEP also recalled that the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee had supported the initiative (see EUROPE 12114). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)