Debate: Impact of Russian invasion of Ukraine on migration flows to the EU
Date: TUESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

Putin is responsible for this terrible war. He wants to destroy Ukraine. He wants to destroy the Ukrainians as a people. But we should not be naïve, he also would like to destroy the European Union. Putin is a threat also towards us, and the security threat in the European Union is rising and we need to act to protect ourselves. The right to apply for asylum, also for Russian citizens, remains untouched, but the possibility to get a tourist visa in the European Union is not a fundamental right and should be restricted for Russian citizens. Putin must lose, it’s the only way to end this crisis and we must continue to support Ukrainians in Ukraine. We have mobilised so far EUR 10 billion in humanitarian emergency and military aid. Another 5 billion is in the pipeline. We are preparing for winter. And many of you have recognised –and thank you very much for that – the unprecedented decision when Member States agreed to my proposal to activate the Temporary Protection Directive. So far, 4.3 million Ukrainians have registered for a temporary protection. But since May, every week we have seen more people leaving the European Union back to Ukraine and coming in the other direction. So quite a high number of Ukrainians are now back in Ukraine. I met some of them when I was in Kyiv in August. And it is clear that those that have registered for a temporary protection, when they go back to Ukraine, they are no longer refugees. They should de—register for temporary protection. But they are afraid to do so because they say, well, if bombs start falling again, as they are right now, they need to quickly come back to European Union and they are welcome back to the European Union when things get worse. That’s why we have been working together with the Member States, together with Ukrainian Government, to make sure, we say, you could always go back to Ukraine and you do not need to de—register, but you need to notify the Member State where you have registered that they are going back to Ukraine, but you can keep your registration so it’s easy to come back to the EU if things get worse. Many of you – some of you – have raised the money. So, as I said in the beginning, we have allocated all the EUR 4 million in emergency assistance that we promised for protection of borders and for dealing with refugees. We have supported the Member States most affected, and the biggest share has gone to Poland. We have also made sure that 30% of these funds will go to NGOs and local authorities. Concerning food insecurity, we must get the grain out of Ukraine and we are taking action. Between May and August, EU solidarity lanes carried more than 11 million tonnes of grains, oilseeds and other products out of Ukraine, and we provide a total of 7.7 billion in support for food insecurity as part of global gateway investments in partner countries. Food insecurity could bring conflict, increased criminal and terrorist threat and provoke social unrest. These could provoke people to flee. So far, we are not seeing this happen, but we remain vigilant. We are closely following the developments. And to conclude, honourable Members, since February, we as a European Union have shown what we can achieve when we work close together, united here, to deal with the migration crisis. We should use these lessons learned of what we can achieve when we actually cooperate in a positive way, to use that on the pact on migration and asylum to make sure that this pact will be adopted during this mandate.