Special meeting European Council on migratory pressures in the Mediterranean in Brussels. Statements by Guy Verhofstadt, President of ALDE Group

Brussels

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

statement

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

Immigration (T2)

death of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea (T)

European Council

Special meeting European Council on migratory pressures in the Mediterranean: Statements by Guy Verhofstadt, President of ALDE Group

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), President of ALDE Group, <p>"The problem is that first of all we have no European agency to protect our borders, because it&rsquo;s a small agency, with only a few millions of euro at its disposal, and there are only voluntary contributions by the Member States. It is completely crazy, if you have a common border, it&rsquo;s a common obligation, and you need mandatory contribution by the Member States. They have for the moment at Frontex 1 helicopter, 2 airplanes and 7 boats at their disposal. That is maybe good for the coast of Belgium which is 80 km, no more than that, but certainly not for the operations in Mediterranean. So you need to upgrade this, not by doubling the amount of Triton, but 10 times more.  We need to make from Frontex a real European agency."</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), President of ALDE Group, <p>"Why it is necessary to ask asylum inside the EU? Why it is not possible to ask asylum in our embassies and consulates, why it is not possible to create humanitarian visa, this is foreseen in the European regulations. So that people can ask there and are not obliged to jump into the hands of criminal organisations to come to the EU. We need a legal migration policy. That doesn&rsquo;t exist in Europe. What exists is 28 different legal migration systems."</p>