On Wednesday 15 February, MEPs called for a rapid adoption of the Pact on Migration and Asylum and warned, as did Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, French), for the most part, against “simplistic” solutions such as building walls at the EU’s external borders.
MEPs returned to the conclusions of the European Council of 9-10 February (see EUROPE 13118/1) in a debate focusing on the roadmap that Parliament and the Council of the EU have set for themselves to take forward the Pact.
The EPP Group has put a strong emphasis on the protection of external borders. The Dutchman Jeroen Lenaers called on his partners to show a “spirit of compromise” on the Pact’s issues relating to Member States’ obligations to register migrants (screening).
Tomas Tobé from Sweden, rapporteur for the main text of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, asked his colleagues to make a choice between a policy of “letting migrants die at sea and bringing in people who do not have the right to asylum” and a firm policy of border control and return of irregular persons in cooperation with third countries.
While the two men did not advocate the European financing of ‘walls’ at the external borders, as several Member States governed by Christian Democrats, such as Austria or Greece, do, the Identity and Democracy Group considers that the European Council has opened this door. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Garraud welcomed this new awareness, albeit belatedly, according to him. However, he deplored the Commission’s continued refusal to authorise such measures.
In contrast, S&D Group Chairwoman Iratxe García Perez of Spain expressed concern about the new rhetoric and the EPP’s move towards the far right. The leader of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber from Germany, himself supports the construction of such infrastructure. Wishing to ally herself with the forces in Parliament opposed to the concept of fortress Europe to push forward the Pact, the Spanish Socialist asked the elected representatives “in which world” they want to live: “a world with walls, where we are fighting against migrants” or an open world, which welcomes migrants and will need them for its economy?
“There are no easy answers, but walls are certainly not the solution”, she commented. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)