Meeting of the European Council (18-19 February) in Brussels. Statements by Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE)

Brussels

statement

EU - United Kingdom (T)

meeting

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

European Council meeting 18-19 February 2016 (T)

HARMS, Rebecca (Greens/EFA, DE)

European Council (18-19 February): statements by Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE)

SOUNDBITE (English), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE), <p>(on migration) I am positive if a group of member states will be creating a kind of &lsquo;coalition of willing&rsquo; and will seek a solution, but overall I am convinced that on the different fields of solutions required by the European Union we should have a common approach; I am convinced we have to be better and deliver better for refugees, inside and outside the EU. The decision to have the summit with Turkey very soon points on the fact that also the outside solutions need to be decided upon.</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE), <p>There&rsquo;s this one issue between the UK and the Eastern European States. For me it&rsquo;s impossible to accept to create a &lsquo;second class&rsquo; workforce from Eastern Europe. This is for us a red line and we wait for the agreements taken to judge on this. Another very important point for me is that I want an ever stronger EU; we are facing the refugee crisis, we are facing the war in Syria, we are facing a very difficult new situation with Putin and the Kremlin, the unsolved challenge of the global warming, all this shows we must remain stronger together. This requires on one side the UK in the EU and on the other side a situation where we don&rsquo;t allow single member states to use the EU &lsquo;a la carte&rsquo;.</p>