ALDE Party Leaders&nbsp;meet ahead of the European Council. Arrivals and extracts from the statement by Graham WATSON (ALDE, UK)

Brussels

European Council meeting 25-26 June 2015 (T)

ALDE

WATSON, Graham (ALDE, UK, Sir)

ALDE Party Leaders meet ahead of the European Council: arrivals

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/14741076/I104981Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

External view of the venue of the ALDE party, 'Cercle de Lorraine', Brussels, Belgium (3 shots)

Arrivals of the Liberal leaders, (8 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Graham WATSON (ALDE, UK), President of the European Liberal Democrat Party, (On migration) "I think clearly there is a very big challenge for the European Union, but we do seem to be moving towards an agreement where there will some kinds of burden sharing. And I think it is important that Europe recognizes that we face the biggest Humanitarian challenge so far in this century and that we respond to it generously but also with self-interest because Europe does need migrants for a number of missing skills and to deal with the problem of a declining population."

SOUNDBITE (English), Graham WATSON (ALDE, UK), President of the European Liberal Democrat Party, (On security policy) "I think defence policy is one of the biggest challenges that faces us, we have lived for some years under the illusion that there is some kind of peace dividend and we can continually cut defence budgets, what has happened in the Ukraine showed us that this is a dangerous assumption and that we need NATO, but we also need a greater defence discussion and commitment within the European context, because NATO and the EU have to work together, hand in glove, in facing this challenge."

SOUNDBITE (English), Graham WATSON (ALDE, UK), President of the European Liberal Democrat Party, (On the country specific recommendations/ European semester) "I think there is no doubt that the European semester is a vital process in keeping an eye on what is happening across the European Union. We were caught dangerously off guard by the banking crisis and sovereign debt crisis of 2008/2009. The European Semester is a way of everybody policing everybody else of Europe making sure that no one country is going to let it down."