Debate: Preparation of the European Council meeting of - June , in particular in the light of recent steps towards concluding the Migration Pact
Date: WEDNESDAY, 14 JUNE 2023
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

I also would like to reassure many other honourable Members that we will continue also to provide the support for Ukrainian refugees, who received remarkable reception in our Member States. I think that it was the true expression of European solidarity, for which we have to express gratitude to all Member States and to all our citizens who opened their households, municipalities who opened their schools and provided shelter, especially to women and children who are fleeing the horrors of war in Ukraine. Mr Belka and several other honourable Members referred to the importance of strengthening the competitiveness of our industry and deepening of the single market. And he was also highlighting the importance of external relations with China and the United States and the need also, in this respect, to review the multiannual financial framework. As I was indicating in my introductory remarks, we are working on that. We know that one of the priorities for the review of MFF would be to make sure that we will be able to support financially Ukraine. But of course there will be other priorities which will be reflected in that review and of course we will come and present it in great detail to this House. Of course, most of the discussion was focused on very important issues linked with migration. Mr Rangel, Mr Schirdewan, Ms Reintke, Ms Strik have been asking very pertinent questions concerning border procedures, what kind of safeguards we are putting in place, how we want to take better care of minors and how we want to avoid a new Moria. And I would like to reassure you that the agreement of the Member States to introduce the Asylum Procedure Regulation and the mandatory border procedure comes with a purpose to quickly assess, at the EU’s external border, whether applications are unfounded or inadmissible. The procedure is mandatory for Member States if the applicant is in danger of national security or public order, he or she has misled the authorities with false information or by withholding information, and if the applicant has a nationality with a recognition rate of 20% or below. We want to do it much faster than before, and the total duration of the asylum and return border procedure should not exceed six months. We are fully aware of your of your comments and insistence that, in order to carry out the border procedures in full respect of human rights of migrants, we need to establish adequate capacity in terms of reception and human resources to examine, at any given moment, an identified number of applications to enforce the return decisions. We are working on this and, at Union level, this adequate capacity is established at the level of 30 000. Several of you highlighted the importance of Asylum Procedure Regulation, and I would like to reassure all of you that this proposal does not foresee the automatic use of detention. It is always used as a last resort, when necessary and proportionate, on the basis of individual assessment and subject to the judicial review. Especially if it comes to minors: as a rule, minors should not be detained. Again, only under very special circumstances, circumstances which are very precisely described in this proposal. If you allow me on the on the last point, because it was raised by honourable Members, Mr Marques, Ms Marques, Ms Rego and Ms Strik as well. It concerns the trip of President von der Leyen, which she took together with Prime Minister Rutte and Prime Minister Meloni, to Tunisia. I think we have to look at it as a Team Europe spirit and approach. What was proposed there was a comprehensive package to invest in stability, prosperity, but also to further support Tunisia’s journey of democracy. Therefore, if you look at what was proposed to our Tunisian partners, it was not only the support for anti-smuggling operational partnership and better border management, but also investment in the economic development, macro-financial assistance and also investment in trade, which will be done by the European Investment Bank. We also see the opportunities to work with Tunisia in the field of energy and the improvement of peoples-to-peoples contact. So, we want to approach this issue in the comprehensive manner which we believe would have positive impact on all other issues we have been discussing today. If you allow me to conclude, because my time is up, I really would like to thank you for the fervour, dynamism and in-depth knowledge of this very important issue, which is on the table of the European Union for many, many years. I believe that this energy, this collegial spirit, would allow us to proceed quickly with trilateral negotiations to make sure that all important elements of this package will be improved. I really would like to thank you for this discussion and to thank you for all the compliments which you addressed to my colleague Commissioner Ylva Johansson and the Swedish Presidency and Jessika Roswall for indeed being able to conclude the file which was in the discussion for many, many years, because I believe it opens the opportunity for the rapid conclusion on this very important issue.