In this context it should be added that Greece must receive assistance to fully control the FYROM border and any complementary assistance to FYROM should likewise be coordinated at EU level. It is high time that everyone takes their individual responsibilities, but we also must step up to our shared responsibilities....Martin Schulz

                                                      Press  Release

Internal Policies and EU Institutions Brussels - 18-02-2016

Speech at the European Council by Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament

Extract from the speech

Migration

After five years of war, after more than 250.000 deaths, after half of all Syrians left their homes in search of shelter, millions lost their livelihood, millions of houses lie in ruins, after unemployment, inflation and poverty have soared, after we thought it could not get any worse, it did get worse yet again: Russian bombs are falling on Aleppo, bringing bloodshed and terror, and a further exodus of refugees. 

This unfolding human tragedy must compel us to push harder for a negotiated end of the war, to step up humanitarian assistance and increase our efforts to deal with the refugee and migration situation. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

The European Parliament believes that this needn’t have been a crisis if every Member State had taken its responsibility following a common approach at EU level. In the last months, solutions have been devised. Many new instruments have been created and further crucial building blocks are underway. But the problem is that everyone sees the situation from their individual standpoint and waits for the other to move first in implementing those necessary solutions. Even though the latest survey issued yesterday shows strong expectations of united European action: 79% of Europeans believe the EU should have a common migration policy, 87% believe the EU has a common duty to protect its external borders and 79% believe asylum-seekers should be fairly distributed among all Member States.

Now you need to give the necessary impulse to get the EU out of this deadlock or what I would rather call this crisis of solidarity.

Firstly, cooperation with Turkey has rightly been stepped up in recent months. Turkey is hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees and deserves our assistance. But Turkey is also the point of departure for many refugees when they embark on the dangerous trip to Europe. 60 000 irregular entries to Greece occurred only in the month of January. Despite some promising legislative modifications in Turkey and the increasing migratory pressure it is facing itself, it is difficult to affirm that the EU-Turkey Action Plan has had any discernible effect in stemming irregular migration. We see more a “winter effect” than an “EU-Turkey Action Plan effect”. The relevant part of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement is supposed to produce effects only from 1 June and the agreement with Greece is not working satisfactorily either. And we look with increasing concern to the increase in military activity in the Kurdish areas. So how do we get our EU partnership with Turkey off the ground, based on mutual respect, shared efforts and common fundamental values?

We should put money where our mouth is. Many countries, for example Germany, Sweden and Austria, are making huge financial efforts to support refugees domestically. Assisting Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey and bettering their living conditions there, is, however, equally important. Therefore, the European Parliament welcomes the agreement between Member States on the arrangements for the Facility for refugees in Turkey. Implementing projects directly with international organisations, NGOs and local authorities on the ground is the best way to show that EU is engaged - and this should start now. Because the most vulnerable groups of displaced persons cannot wait – and my colleagues who visited the country last week informed me that those in cities, outside the refugee camps, are particularly in need of support.

Irregular migration as it currently persists from Turkey must be replaced by legal pathways through resettlement and humanitarian admission, and it is understandable that Prime Minister Davutoglu was not able to travel to Brussels to discuss this with willing Member States today as foreseen, given the heinous terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Ankara.

Let me add as well that Turkey should also be concerned by the impact this crisis may have on the future of EU integration. A weaker Europe both economically and politically would affect Turkey's economic growth. It is hoped the Turkish leadership will understand the historical dimension of the situation.

Secondly, despite all the unacceptable delays in setting them up, the Hotspot concept put forward by the Commission in its Migration Agenda last May remains in the European Parliament's view fundamentally valid as a “one-stop-shop” located where pressure is the most severe at the EU's external border. Fingerprinting and registration is essential if we want make sure that migration is managed and orderly. In Greece, fingerprinting is now up to 78% from 8% last September. But it's not enough. It means that thousands of unidentified people are walking across our continent. Everyone arriving needs to be registered. 100% of arrivals need checking against Interpol and EU databases for forged and stolen documents, and security risks.

If asylum seekers know that they can easily abscond from the asylum system where they are entitled to have their asylum claim processed, then the incentive to request relocation from Italy or Greece is very low. Add to this the administrative difficulties, political resistance and even ongoing legal challenges, and it is not difficult to understand why the relocation scheme got off to a sluggish start. Less than 500 relocations have taken place so far since the Council adopted the scheme last September. The same number of persons arrives every six hours irregularly at our external border. These insufficient efforts are therefore a mere drop in the ocean. We are glad in that respect that Prime Minister Valls last Saturday underlined France’s strong commitment to speedily relocate its agreed share of refugees from Italy and Greece. If all countries accelerated their efforts, we would already be a step further.

Thirdly, the lack of orderly management of migration flows along the Western Balkans route remains a pressing concern. Spring is coming closer, and some EU countries are still “waving through” third-country nationals who consider they have a right to choose where they want to claim asylum. Under our EU rules, there is no such thing as a “transit” Member State. Nor will closing borders solve anything per se. On the contrary, it risks making the crisis worse by fragmenting the routes. In this context it should be added that Greece must receive assistance to fully control the FYROM border and any complementary assistance to FYROM should likewise be coordinated at EU level. It is high time that everyone takes their individual responsibilities, but we also must step up to our shared responsibilities.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Fourthly, asylum only works if those who have no right to stay return. If you have no right to stay, yet in 60% of cases, you are not be returned, this creates an incentive to come to Europe nonetheless. Is this the message you want to send? And do we want to encourage the lucrative business model some third countries seem to have developed, asking for substantial sums to take back their own nationals? Therefore, as a matter of urgency the EU must conclude readmission agreements with Morocco, Algeria, renewing efforts to implement the one with Pakistan, with special attention also paid to Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Without doubt, it would be helpful if Turkey were to align its visa policy to the EU's in respect to countries which are the source of significant irregular migration.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Fifthly, we know that many of you share our concerns about the impact of the migration crisis on Schengen. The European Parliament takes note that the Council has adopted last week a Recommendation under the Schengen Borders Code with a three-month deadline for serious and persistent deficiencies to be addressed through 50 detailed recommendations. Let me plead that these three months are put to good use in making the necessary investments in Greece – with the EU's utmost financial and human assistance. That is why President Juncker, to whom I pay tribute for his tireless coordination efforts in this crisis, is right in speaking of a Schengen safeguard procedure.

We all know what one possible outcome of this procedure, as a last resort, is a further possibility to reintroduce internal border controls at a number of points in the Schengen area. We want to highlight here one significant fact: closing borders costs money. It affects transport in goods, cross-border workers, logistics. It also has many indirect costs, such as on the tourism industry. Free movement goes beyond the movement of persons - it include goods, services and capital. A disastrous effect on the single market is a real risk, and this just coming out of several years of economic crisis. All those who don’t care today about the future of Schengen would do well to bear this in mind. When I think of my own Member State, Germany, we have land borders with no less than nine other Member States. Whilst we understand well the need to ensure orderly population flows in this exceptional crisis, the European Parliament urges you not to set in train a process that becomes irreversible, that destroys jobs and that undermines the European economy.

Last but not least, the European Parliament for its part will fulfil its responsibility to deliver on the legislative side. Let us get an effective, well-resourced and accountable European Border and Coastguard immediately agreed between Parliament and Council and made operational by the summer. The European Parliament’s rapporteur Mr Artis Pabriks is nominated and our negotiating team stands ready and looks forward to intensive work with the Dutch Presidency on this crucial piece of legislation and I know Prime Minister Rutte shares this ambition. I would also take this opportunity to call for priority to be given to all other migration-related legislative proposals on the table, be they on returns, safe countries, the Schengen Borders Code, and importantly the upcoming revision of the Dublin system and of our legal migration framework.

Ladies and gentlemen,

One day all of us around this table will have to answer to how we as the EU dealt with the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. Lamentably, this crisis is exposing serious fault-lines within our Union, political ones, ideological and societal ones. It requires all your combined statesmanship and constructive work, bolstered by a sustainable EU framework, which the EU institutions are building step by step, to avoid widening these rifts. This means stopping to talk of preconditions, stopping to point fingers, and naming the real problems where they occur - to put an end to the crisis of solidarity that has beset the European Union. First and foremost this means recognizing the EU's fundamental strength as a force for solidarity – sharing benefits but also responsibilities. Don't give further satisfaction to those in the world who look forward to a divided, weaker, "little” Europe.

page soucre  http://www.europarl.europa.eu/

For further information:europarl.president.press@europarl.europa.eu
Armin Machmer
Spokesperson
+32 479 97 11 98
Giacomo Fassina
Press Officer
+32 498 98 33 10