Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs with Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister for the Interior, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Agustin DIAZ DE MERA GARCIA CONSUEGRA (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister for the Interior, and Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE).

Brussels

meeting

DÍAZ DE MERA GARCÍA CONSUEGRA, Agustín (EPP, ES)

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

fight against terrorism (T)

SIPPEL, Birgit (S&D, DE)

EU - France (T)

CAZENEUVE, Bernard (FR)

Exchange of views with Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister for the Interior: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, Today I would like to start by thanking all of the members of the EP on this committee or not, for the solidarity they showed our country at a time when our country was hard hit by attacks, both at the beginning of 2015 and in the summer of 2016 where we had the attacks in Nice, we had the attacks on two policemen, we had a priest killed as well. We had 230 people killed and close to 900 people injured in major terrorist attacks, some of you have seen nationals of your own country involved in these terrorist attacks.

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, We have, at the same time, to face the migration crisis and the terrorism crisis, and we have very many people arriving in our countries, a couple of million over the last year and a half, migrants arriving in the EU, many of theme fleeing from violence, fleeing from persecution in their own country, often fleeing poverty and arriving in the EU. These are two different issues, migration and terrorism.

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, I would like to insist on the setting up of Frontex, a renewed and strengthened European border and coast guard agency, 1500 agents that be can mobilised at any time, they now also have coast guards, this was greed in record time, 6 months.

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, We have considerably increased the capacity of the French immigration office (<a href="http://www.ofii.fr/">OFII - Office Fran&ccedil;ais de l'Immigration et de l'Int&eacute;gration</a> and L&rsquo;Office Fran&ccedil;ais de Protection des R&eacute;fugi&eacute;s et des Apatrides (OFPRA)), we looked at demand and supply. It used to be 24 months to take a decision on asylum, it is now 14 months and we want to get it down to 9 months. The had 22,000 places for asylum seekers when this government came in, there will be 42,000 when it leaves.

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, so we decided to get these people to apply for asylum in France rather than leaving them in the hands of people smugglers. Once that was decided, we didn't want to keep them in Calais. We wanted to put them in other centres which where there was decent housing, so we decide to dismantle the camps in Calais and bring them elsewhere.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Agust&#237;n D&#205;AZ DE MERA GARC&#205;A CONSUEGRA (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, There's a special question which France blocks. I am the rapporteur on the visa suspension mechanism and the reciprocity mechanism, that goes back to 2001. I would like to raise a number of fairly obvious matters but matters which ought to be raised. Minister, since I am the rapporteur for this report, I would do my utmost to defend the co-legislative role of the EP, the Council is really trying to undermine this. I will stand up for this stance.

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, France is not blocking here. It is not alone in its position. We are simply trying to strike a balance where the need to uphold the principles of the EU, to do that in a framework that takes into account the risks that are linked to visa liberalisation, if there aren't precaution and safeguards in place, if there are are not principles that can be triggered if there were to be some point in time an upset in the balance.

SOUNDBITE (German), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), Minister, you have made mention of the state of emergency. This should be the exception to the rule, but in France it has been going on for a fair old while. When are you planning to lift or limit this state of emergency?

SOUNDBITE (French), Bernard CAZENEUVE, French Minister of the Interior, When you trigger a state of emergency, you need to prove and imminent threat, and it allows for the administrative police to take measures to protect the French people. They fall under respecting the law and there's jurisdictional and parliamentary control constantly.