Joint meeting of the Committee of FOreign Affairs (AFET), the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and&nbsp;the Subcommitee on Human Rights (DROI), in the EP in Brussels, on respecting human rights in the context of migration flows in the mediterranean. Opening remarks by Emar BROK (EPP, DE), Chair of AFET Committee, and Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of LIBE Committee.

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Brussels

meeting

Subcommittee on Human Rights

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

BROK, Elmar (EPP, DE)

Respecting human rights in the context of migration flows in the Mediterranean: extracts from the opening remarks by Emar BROK and Claude MORAES

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/20487154/I108496Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

External shot of the European Parliament in Brussels. (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (German), Elmar BROK (EPP, DE), Chair of the AFET Committee, "We are in a situation that has caused a huge human suffering and therefore I would like to welcome Mrs. KURDI, the aunt of the victim child Aylan, who has become a symbol of the situation, a situation in which human beings have left their homes, that are displaced in Syria or Iraq or elsewhere. 7 million people fleeing, some say even 10 million people and that, as it looks now, without any great prospects". 

SOUNDBITE (German), Elmar BROK (EPP, DE), Chair of the AFET Committee, "We must say that, in my opinion, in the last 18 years that I have followed this topic, too many countries have have prevented that the European Union from creating the tools that we need now". 

SOUNDBITE (German), Elmar BROK, Chair of the AFET Committee, "We will discuss here the questions that have to do with the so-called hotspots. We can't leave Greece, Malta, Hungary or Italy on their own. The Dublin regulation normally works, but this is not a normal case. And therefore we should gather and mobilize financial and personal assets of the member states and of the European Union for these hotspots that could also - we should discuss that, too - could be located outside from the European Union."

SOUNDBITE (German), Elmar BROK (EPP, DE), Chair of the AFET Committee, "I hope that now the United Nations will take the opportunity, that the EU, the United States of America and Russia will come to a common position to engage key states that are to a certain extent conducting a proxy war in Syria, such as Riyadh, Tehran and Ankara".

SOUNDBITE (German), Elmar BROK (EPP, DE), Chair of the AFET Committee, "I would like to remind the governments of our member states that the have proudly cut the financing for the budget of this period in the domain of external relations. And I would like them to reconsider that otherwise we won't be able to control this".

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee, "If the member states had worked hard on this structure (a refugee relocation mechanism) we would not have had many of the problems that we are facing now collectively in the European Union".

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee, "My concern is that, if there is not political agreement in the numbers that we had in the very important Commission proposals presented by Commissioner AVRAMOPOULOS, then we will lose credibility and I want to say that, for the LIBE Committee, we are very concerned that the work we are doing and presenting, if not accepted at this stage, will mean that overall we will lose huge credibility".

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee, "I want to ensure that it's not just for the sort term, the medium and long term is absolutely essential. And that means that we have an asylum system that lasts, that we have a permanent procedure for relocation and that we (the European Parliament) have some say in this because this will not just be a problem for today, it will be a problem for tomorrow because of the global issues that we face". 