At the plenary session on Wednesday 10 September, MEPs clashed over the relevance of the debate requested by the PfE group on the impact of “mass” migration on the safety of women and children in the EU, as the group had asked for it to be called.
Some MEPs from the so-called pro-European groups - the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left - denounced “lies”, “amalgams” and “a false debate”, in the words of France’s Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe).
Others, on the left of the Chamber, denounced “a racist and xenophobic plan” by the Patriots for Europe and a debate designed, in the words of Dutch MEP Jeroen Lenaers (EPP), to “pit people against each other”. This is without the PfE providing any “solutions”.
France’s Jean-Paul Garraud (PfE) launched this debate by listing the murders of young women committed recently by illegal immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands; he also recalled incidents such as groping on public transport and said that the “denial” of these links between immigration and insecurity was “intellectual dishonesty”.
The Frenchman also denounced Ursula von der Leyen’s policy and the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, which “will distribute migrants” between Member States. He also condemned EU funding of NGOs that promote Islamism and bring in migrants.
For Mélissa Camara (Greens/EFA, French), children and women must indeed be protected in the EU, but “in the face of the extreme right”, which, with its positions on the right to abortion, attacks against lesbians and “conversion therapies”, poses more of a threat. “Who is really threatening women and children in the EU?” she asked.
Many MEPs also pointed out that, according to Eurostat, there is no proven link between security and immigration, and that most rapes and violence are attributed to domestic violence.
While Alessandro Ciriani (ECR, Italian), the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the list of ‘safe countries of origin’, supported Jean-Paul Garraud’s remarks and said that the impact on security of uncontrolled migration, which has been too great for national systems in recent years, was “clear”, the EPP and Renew Europe reiterated that only the application of the ‘Pact’ and common rules could provide real answers by managing asylum flows and applications in a more orderly fashion.
Present at the debate, the Commissioner for Defence, Andrius Kubilius, also pointed out that irregular entries into the EU had fallen significantly this year, with 26% fewer arrivals between January and August 2025 than during the same period in 2024. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)