Debate: Need for a speedy adoption of the asylum and migration package
Date: WEDNESDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2023
Speaker: Margaritis Schinas
Language: EN

Everything we do not like about migration in Europe nowadays is the direct, immediate consequence of the fact that Europe does not have a migration and asylum system. Moria, Lampedusa, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Calais: these are the symptoms; these are the consequences. The root of the problem is that we need a system. Many times some of you would have heard me describing our Pact proposals as a house with three floors. First floor: relations with countries of origin and transit. We will never be able to manage internally unless we manage externally. Second floor: border management. It is morally, politically and legally unfair to delegate the responsibility for our external border to the five Member States that geography has put at the perimeter of our Union. This is a collective task. Floor number three: solidarity and burden-sharing. Everyone would have to contribute to the solidarity mix that we would need in a given situation so that the Union lives up to its name as a union. The problem with this house is that up to now, many people – Member States, political forces – wanted to take the lift and go straight to the floor that they like the most. Those who would prefer the first and the second would say ‘no need for the third floor’ because we would have less arrivals, we would have border management; no solidarity. And those who insist on solidarity had the tendency to neglect the importance of border management and strong relations with countries of origin. Let me take this opportunity to say it loudly and clearly, especially as ambassadors are still meeting on the Pact in Brussels. This house with the three floors will be built at the same time and all floors will be of equal resistance. Otherwise, there will be no house. A few words on external relations on migration policy. I know this is a delicate issue. And I have no problem to admit that much of the work we did in the past in countries of origin and transit did not succeed. We give the biggest development aid in the world and still we didn’t manage to obtain added value for our development aid in Africa and elsewhere. We built enough highways, airports – most of them constructed by European construction companies – but we didn’t create opportunities for people to have better lives in these countries instead of putting their lives in the hands of the smugglers in the Mediterranean. Now we have an opportunity to change the paradigm, do partnership agreements that would create opportunities for the young, for women, for those who are most in need, and at the same time mobilise everything we have – not only money but also trade preferences, visas, Erasmus scholarships. Europe has to approach countries of origin with a holistic partnership viewpoint. I understand and I share the doubt and scepticism about authoritarian leaders in our perimeter. I do not live in an exoplanet. I can count democracies in our neighbourhood, but I cannot accept the argument – often by the same people – accusing us of doing nothing with countries of origin and transit and accusing us again of contracting authoritarian leaders when we do something in order to address their concerns. This cannot happen both ways. We have to assume that we have to work with everybody, but under the very clear caveat that we will not relinquish our European values and principles. We do not need a fortress Europe. We need a partner Europe. Finally, I found much encouragement in this debate this morning. But the most encouraging moment was when the left accused me of playing in the tune of the extreme right, and the extreme right accused me of organising the campaign of the left. That’s the biggest encouragement for me. We are on the right track.