MEPs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties had, on Thursday 14 July, an intense and sometimes tense exchange with Commission Vice-President Margarítis Schinás, responsible for promoting the European Way of Life.
The Commission Vice-President was both urged to press the EU Council to move forward with the entire ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and repeatedly questioned about the alleged migrant pushback in Greece and the Commission’s inaction.
While some of his commitments, such as launching the first legal labour migration partnerships (‘Talents and Skills') with Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt at the end of the year were welcomed, the answers he gave on pushbacks in Greece disappointed several MEPs.
Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe, Dutch), Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Dutch) or the Greek MEP, Konstantinis Arvanis, and the Irish MEP, Clare Daly, from The Left, expressed their dissatisfaction and asked, for example, why the Commission has still not launched infringement proceedings against Greece despite the growing number of international reports on the Greek Coast Guard’s actions and an internal OLAF report that led to the resignation of the former executive director, Fabrice Leggeri.
Calling some of the allegations “Turkish propaganda”, the Vice-President repeatedly defended the need to protect and manage Europe’s borders and to put this work on the same level of importance as respecting the fundamental rights of migrants, who must be able to apply for international protection.
He also said that Greece had provided assurances by referring the matter to the independent authorities and allowing the prosecutor’s office to look into allegations made by the press or NGOs.
‘Abnormal’ migration flows
The EU official also highlighted the increasingly violent modus operandi of smugglers, “who put migrants’ lives at risk”, for example by abandoning them in the middle of the Evros River, and increasingly aggressive tendencies “that are not part of normal migration movements”.
Referring to attempts by third parties to instrumentalise migration, the Vice-President was also accused by several MEPs of only targeting migrants.
On the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, Mr Schinás praised the efforts of the French Presidency of the EU Council, which had taken forward the regulations on ‘screening’ migrants, Eurodac and the solidarity mechanism for people rescued at sea. He expressed confidence that the legislature would reach an agreement on the Pact and called on the Parliament to take a position on the ‘screening’ and Eurodac regulations to start the trilogues.
EU Council/European Parliament Roadmap still under discussion
The Vice-President also referred to the ‘Roadmap’ that will soon be finalised between the EU Council and the European Parliament to make progress on the Pact. It is not yet finalised and it is not clear whether it contains a timetable for the adoption of the various texts of the Pact, sources say.
While the Parliament, for its part, could vote at the end of the year on the ‘screening’ text, it remains divided on Eurodac, with the S&D group, for example, having difficulties with the provisions on fingerprinting children as young as 6 years of age.
Concerning solidarity, the statement addressed to those rescued at sea is not enough to convince the Parliament of the goodwill of the EU Council, as suggested by the Spanish MEP from the EPP group, Juan Ignacio Zoido. “We need a permanent mechanism” and “a binding principle of burden-sharing and solidarity” to make the Pact work. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)