MEPs are ready to negotiate new rules on asylum and migration with the Council of the EU, but not at the expense of European values, warned several political groups on Wednesday 14 June during a debate on preparations for the forthcoming European summit on 29 and 30 June.
Following the agreement reached on 8 June by EU interior ministers on the ‘Asylum and Migration Management’ regulation and the ‘Asylum Procedures’ regulation (see EUROPE 13198/8), migration will indeed be a topic on the agenda of European leaders.
Speaking on the subject, Sweden’s Minister for European Affairs, Jessika Roswall, who welcomed the decisive step taken by the European ministers’ agreement, said that “we urgently need to reach an agreement with the European Parliament”.
For his part, the Vice-President of the Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, who welcomed a “fundamental step and a real breakthrough” in the Council of the EU, reaffirmed the objective of reaching an agreement on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ before the end of the legislature.
Asserting that the approach being pursued today, based in particular on cooperation with third countries, will have an impact on arrivals in the EU and the trafficking of migrants, he called on both parties to be “open” to compromise.
The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for her part, will be sending a letter to European leaders before the Summit in which she will outline the progress made, he added.
More critical voices were heard in the Chamber. While the Parliament’s EPP group, led by Paulo Rangel (Portuguese), welcomed the decisive step taken with the agreement in the Council of the EU, it also felt that “this is not enough” and that the decisive phase is now beginning with the trilogues. Mr Rangel called for migrants to be treated with dignity and for development aid to be provided in the countries of origin to prevent new arrivals.
For her part, the President of the S&D, Iratxe García Pérez of Spain, warned the EPP group against the rhetoric of the EU’s most extremist governments. “Are you also going to feed anti-migrant sentiment?”, she asked, pleading for real aid for front-line countries based on “a fairer distribution of migrants”. “Flexible and compulsory solidarity is not enough”, she commented.
The Dutch representative Malik Azmani (Renew Europe) also pointed to the “fear-mongering” of certain political forces. Welcoming the fact that the EU is finally taking “steps to respond to the major challenges”, he criticised those “who sow fear” and spread the message that migrants pose a threat. “We refuse to go along with that. Migrants are people like you and me, who are fleeing persecution and want a better life. Our values oblige us to respond to their problems”.
“We are asking all those of goodwill in this House to take action”, he added, also calling on third countries of transit to live up to their responsibilities.
For the Greens/EFA and The Left, it is precisely these European values that are being undermined by the agreement reached by the ministers, with Greens/EFA co-president Terry Reintke (German) criticising agreements reached with “autocrats who act against their own citizens”, in reference to the agreement reached in recent days by the Commission with the Tunisian government.
For Martin Schirdewan (The Left, German), these financial agreements with third countries simply relocate the problem and solve nothing.
“We said ‘Moria cannot happen again’! And yet, that’s what we’re going back to”, said the Co-President of The Left, referring to the ‘Asylum Procedures’ regulation, which he believes will involve more detention centres for migrants, including the detention of families with young children, which represents a “frontal attack” on the right of asylum, according to him. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)