Second High-level Interparliamentary Conference on Migration and Asylum in Europe in the European Parliament in Brussels. Welcoming speeches by David SASSOLI, EP President, Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia República, Igor ZORCIC, President of the Slovenian National Assembly and Wolfgang SCHÄUBLE, President of the German Bundestag (TBC). Keynote speech by Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of a stronger Europe in the World (TBC). This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

SCHÄUBLE, Wolfgang (DE)

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

interparliamentary conference

FERRO RODRIGUES, Eduardo (PT)

BORRELL FONTELLES, Josep (PSE, ES, EC)

SCHINAS, Margaritis (EPP-DE, EL, EC)

ZORČIČ, Igor (SI)

Second High-level Interparliamentary Conference on Migration and Asylum: Welcoming speeches and keynote speech

Title: Second High-level Interparliamentary Conference on Migration and Asylum: Welcoming speeches and keynote speech

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, Honourable president of the European Parliament, Mr Sassoli, from Lisbon and the Portuguese Parliament I'd like to extend my warmest welcome and also I'd like to welcome representatives from the Slovenian National Assembly and the German Bundestag. The reason why we're meeting here today is a reason of considerable importance, something which is very much strikes to the heart of what we are in the European Union and what is set out in the Lisbon Treaty, especially in Article two and we think it is important to understand what it is to be part of the international community in 2020.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, We saw a proposed new pact for asylum and migration, is a very important document and it's very important that the European Union find a consensus on this. The high representative for refugees, Filippo Grandi, recalled that this pact is giving Europe an opportunity to prove that the fundamental right of asylum is being validated. And those who require international protection should be given it and, of course, there's a degree of responsibility it has to be assumed for these people. The Portuguese presidency took up this topic of asylum and migration, and we've dedicated a great deal of attention to it. And in this context, maybe I can remind you of the ministerial meeting and conference on migratory flows from the 11th May. 

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, The European summit will also discuss this issue and I assume that the blue card for professional qualifications will be established. Migration is a crosscutting topic and the covid-19 pandemic is as well. Of course, covid has had a big impact on migration, especially the external dimension. In this pandemic we've been able to see that one of the fundamental principles of the European Union is being affected and that is the free movement of people. The single market is also affected, but mostly it's a question of affecting the mobility of university students, and in a recent study on Erasmus, you can see that the restriction of free movement of persons is not just one that has existed between member states, but actually within the national borders of member states.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, The European summit will also discuss this issue and I assume that the blue card for professional qualifications will be established. Migration is a crosscutting topic and the covid-19 pandemic is as well. Of course, covid has had a big impact on migration, especially the external dimension. In this pandemic we've been able to see that one of the fundamental principles of the European Union is being affected and that is the free movement of people. The single market is also affected, but mostly it's a question of affecting the mobility of university students, and in a recent study on Erasmus, you can see that the restriction of free movement of persons is not just one that has existed between member states, but actually within the national borders of member states.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, These restrictions, of course, have been extended to the external borders of the European Union. And these are one and the same time national borders as well. The geographical location of certain member states has inherent with their position. The situation that they are more strongly exposed to migratory flows and humanitarian drama is linked to asylum and migration. Frontex and other European agencies have been on the front line in dealing with these issues. It's not just a question of security and safety, but also a question of respecting the values of the European Union and international law. 

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, The pandemic has meant that the asylum and migration issues have come to the fore once again and have hit our societies hard. These are aspects that, of course, can't be left unaddressed. The situation in the migratory camps, for example, let's not forget that migrants play an important role in our collective life. How many public services and private companies use migrants as employees in the framework of legal migration? This is also important. We know that in coming years we're going to have a shortfall of workers and that we'll have to turn to third countries to recruit staff.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, resident of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, Filippo Grandi said that a well organised, well executed humanitarian policy will help us exit this current crisis. Let us not forget developing countries as well. There's a question of providing vaccines to these countries. Let's not forget what Antonio Guterres, the Secretary general of the United Nations, said: "nobody will be safe until all of us are safe". Of course, there's also a question of GDP. In 2020, there were more than 14 million Africans who have fallen under the poverty line. They less than one point ninety five dollars per day. And hence, we need a comprehensive and coherent policy throughout the European Union. That means we have to have well balanced, far reaching solutions that will benefit both sides, both the countries of origin, the countries of transit as well. And it's important that we have a concomitant visa policy and also policies for trade and foreign investment. 

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Eduardo FERRO RODRIGUES, President of the Portuguese Assembleia Rep&#250;blica, So we need to have a dialogue and act in solidarity and showing responsibility and I hope that this conference is a success. And so greetings once again from Lisbon. And I hope that we will also be able to provide a contribution for the European Union and for the member states. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Igor ZOR&#268;I&#268;, President of the Slovenian National Assembly, President of the European Parliament, Mr. Sassoli and president of the Assembly of Portuguese Republic, Mr. Ferro Rodrigues and president of the Bundestag, Mr. Sch&auml;uble and Vice President of the European Commission. Mr. Schiners, dear MEPs, dear colleagues. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you during this second interparliamentary Conference on migration and asylum organised during the Portuguese presidency. As I've already had the opportunity to state in November, during the first conference, the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously aggravated the issues relating to migration and asylum and reminds us of the most significant parts of European policy in the field. Which is why I'm pleased that the first part of the conference was dealing with that question: migratory flows have been reduced over the 15 past months due to restrictions in travelling for individuals and because of the sanitary measures in place.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Igor ZOR&#268;I&#268;, President of the Slovenian National Assembly, However, the safety of the migrants has also increased. The risks that they are exposed to, are increased by the sanitary risks and by various forms of racism and exclusion. I would also stress that Slovenia attaches great importance to protecting migrants and health protection from the consequences of Covid-19. We explain the measures to them in their languages and the work is well organised and Slovenia does assure access to vaccination to everyone, including the migrants. It must be said, of course, that the pandemic has aggravated the economic and social situation in the various countries of origin. And this will be another factor that will contribute to further migration, which is why we need to attach great importance to the external dimension of migration. As part of that, Slovenia supports a comprehensive approach, dealing with migration based on a partnership arrangement with the countries of origin, the countries of transit and the countries of destination.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Igor ZOR&#268;I&#268;, President of the Slovenian National Assembly, One needs to realise that migration policy needs to be part of the general cooperation that we have with the countries of origin. We also need to think in terms of growing jobs and growing the economy in these countries. Thus contributing towards the stability of the countries of origin. And I am pleased to see the progress that has been made during the course of the Portuguese presidency. Last December, the commission published a communication on the Migration and Asylum Pact.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Igor ZOR&#268;I&#268;, President of the Slovenian National Assembly, I would like there to be more progress made compared to what has now been achieved and, over the past weeks, the situation has changed so radically that we can afford to be moderately optimistic. The Slovenian presidency will do its level best to make further headway in the field of migration and asylum. We are perfectly aware that this is one of the most pressing issues of the day in the European Union. We are equally aware that the negotiations on these complex issues will be lengthy.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Igor ZOR&#268;I&#268;,  President of the Slovenian National Assembly, We're going to address a comprehensive management of migration with full operation throughout the Schengen area. Furthermore, we want to include enlargement towards the Western Balkans, which is another priority of ours, for us and for migration management. Proper cooperation with this region will be of great importance. Ladies and gentlemen, Slovenia will carry on organising the interparliamentary conference at the high level on migration and asylum. We also hope that an interparliamentary conference will be organised during each presidency. Migration has become a daily topical issue and will continue to accompany us in the years ahead. Therefore, we must adopt our policies accordingly.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Igor ZOR&#268;I&#268;, President of the Slovenian National Assembly, One must also be aware of the fact is that our expectations from the Migration and Asylum pact will not be the end of our work by any means. Beyond that, we need to ensure effective implementation, practical implementation, which will constitute yet another challenge. Allow me to make a call to you. Please come to the upcoming conference to be organised by the National Assembly in cooperation with the European Parliament in the month of November. We will be organising this conference on important issues, key issues, and we will do everything possible so that the interparliamentary conference remains the high level platform for exchange of views.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , Ladies and gentlemen, greetings from Berlin. The German Bundestag, in December last year, just a month after the first Inter-parliamentary Conference on Migration Asylum in Europe, on the occasion of that visit, the Secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres said: "the pandemic has exposed deep fractures, inequalities, unfairness, insufficient social security. Everywhere, the most vulnerable are suffering most". I'd like to thank the Portuguese and Slovenian colleagues for having taken up the bottom of this Inter-parliamentary Conference and put these issues front and centre of their presidencies and continue to focus on these.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , Following the 2015 migration crisis, Covid-19 has meant for all of us, as I said at the time, a further rendezvous with globalisation. The health crisis with its very far reaching ramifications in all areas of our society, is worsening the worldwide social and political conflicts that exist. They are threatening progress in development, and they are destabilising weak public economies, not least because the monetary transfers of millions of migrants have been stopped. And by the way, there's a worldwide risk of an increase in food shortages and famine.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , We're facing a dilemma. The suffering and death on these migration routes are things we should not turn a blind eye to. If we see ourselves in a self-evident position as being part of a Union built on values. Any life lost means that the European Union is losing a degree of credibility. But let's not either give rise to any false hopes, false incentives for people to come to Europe. We have to stop the criminal activities of smugglers and militia and prevent migrants from being exposed to this sort of violence and crime. We also have to ensure that people who have no possibility of remaining legally in the EU that they be quickly and consistently returned to their home countries. 

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , This has worsened. If you just, for example, look at the world market prices for agricultural products that are skyrocketing. And if there's a lack of prospects, then the pressure for migration will increase. The number of people who want to find the path to Europe is increasing once again via the Balkan route, via the Mediterranean, through the Sahel region. And this virus has exacerbated the already poor conditions that these people are suffering from anyway, people who are fleeing their countries. And unfortunately, these conditions also rain in those camps where they arrive. And regardless of these challenges, what we have achieved to date has really not met the needs of what we would expect to be done by now. 

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , In many transit and countries of origin will only make progress if we cooperate with regimes which do not meet the same democratic standards that we espouse. We have to have the highest amount of democracy and humanitarian understanding when we're dealing in this way. But there are still moral costs, ladies and gentlemen, that we will have to assume because we don't have any other partners to deal with. Given the global long term ramifications of Covid, we as Europeans are all the more called on to stabilise our relations with our neighbours to make sure that the economic and environmental developments are supported, democracy and the rule of law be promoted and bolstered. 

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , The European Asylum Agency may be able toMgive some good signals. The new migration and Asylum Pact that we've been talking about in November is already obsolete. However, Europe needs an appropriate policy to deal with migration. A European Asylum right with unitary standards, with recognition and distribution keys, which we can agree on, but we block one another on these issues. Often we leave it up to the member states. The European Union have external borders to face this onslaught themselves. Now, it is up to Europe as a whole to act. We have to find common solutions for migration and asylum policies.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag , The migration partnerships that the Commission is proposing could help if we can manage to implement them in a convincing fashion. And that really comes down to us. The national parliaments and our governments need to be pressed into service here. We have a contribution to make. We have to make sure that there's more commonality, so that when it comes to the future of the European Union, these central issues are dealt with in an appropriate way. I hope that today's exchange will help us along this path. And with those words, I hope that this conference has every success

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Thank you, President Sassoli and Ferro Rodrigues. Dear President. Zorcic, Dr. Shauble. It's a great honour and a pleasure to join you today for this very timely discussion on the EU migration and asylum policy and in particular the external dimension of our migration policies. Let me start by saying that this is the moment, probably, to bring national parliaments closer at the heart of the discussion. For a long time, the discussion of migration policies in Europe has always been considered as something that is limited to the Brussels bubble and the Brussels community. I think this is an issue, obviously, that transcends the confines of the European institutions. It requires a major paradigm shift, and national parliaments and members of national parliaments are an essential part of this debate. So I'm particularly happy, delighted that we can have this discussion at the Inter-parliamentary dimension it merits.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, If there is one thing that we learnt in Europe since 2015-16 refugee crisis, is some of the previous speakers raised, is that migration asylum is not a question that any member state can answer alone. Effective solutions require collective European action, shared objectives, a commonality of understanding. And these shared objectives should go beyond the very often politically toxic debate we are witnessing in certain parts of Europe, which is short-sighted based on isolationist rhetoric, which confines migration policy to a binary choice of us against them, and seeks to perpetuate the absence of a common, well functioning, holistic and cohesive European policy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, The second thing we found out is that when we design the future of the European asylum and migration policies, the external dimension cannot be an accessory, cannot be an afterthought. It has to be integrally interwoven at the heart of our overall thinking. And is not against that we are discussing this this morning, and it is not a coincidence that next week, the leaders of the European Union and the upcoming European Council, will have exactly the same discussion.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Let me start with our Pact for the Migration and Asylum, which we presented last September. And let me start by saying that I truly appreciated the almost universal praise that we are getting on the starting point for a new European migration and asylum policy as described in the Pact. This is the first time that we put on the table a comprehensive, holistic, seamless circlet type of policy, where everything connects to everything else, from better management of our external borders to fair and effective procedures internally in the European Union and the significantly reinforced external dimension.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, The Pact is the only way out of the current problem. But we need to be very clear on how this external dimension of the pact will be structured, because this is the first floor of the three story building that we want to construct. The second floor being borders, the third solidarity. But we need to build these first floor of external dimension sufficiently resilient so that we can withhold the whole architecture. That's why we want to put centrally in this first floor this issue of balance of mutually beneficial partnerships tailor-made to its partners country-specific needs, especially of countries of origin and transit of migratory flows. With these partnerships, we want to help them make better lives for their people so that they can stay and prosper in their home countries instead of putting their lives in the hands of the smugglers in the Mediterranean, in the Aegean or in the Atlantic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life,, We also want to support them in strengthening their migration and asylum capacities, including through enhanced support to border management and counter migrant smuggling actions. We want to help them to address the root causes of irregular migration, not only by investment and money, but by creating an ecosystem of incentives that the European Union is capable of. From visas to trade preferences and yes, why not, erasmus scholarships. So that we have a comprehensive offer. We want to help them help us by stepping up, return readmission and reintegration arrangements. And yes, President Sassoli said it very clearly, we want to help them to develop legal migration possibilities to the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, You may ask, why do you expect these new ideas to take off in practise this time, when we fail to do it in the past? What has changed? Would be the legitimate question. Let me answer this by saying: a lot has changed since 2015/2016. First, for the first time, there is a clear revolution in the stance and the understanding of international partners. They do start to realise that migration has become an issue of central importance to our union. And many of them, particularly countries in our neighbourhood, are often simultaneously themselves. Countries of origin transit and destination, and therefore they face similar challenges to those that we face. In other words, it is also to their own interest to prioritise sustainable solutions to migration and asylum management.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, The second thing that has changed is that contrary to 2015/16, when we had to strive to retrofit migration into our programmes and find the money to be able to cope, by the way, with enormous and very generous help of the European Parliament at the time. This time is different, because this time we are planning our asylum policies at the start of a new EU budgetary cycles. So our external financing instruments have been designed to factor in migration considerations from the outset. And we intend to make a more flexible and strategic use of the programming of our external funding to achieve our objectives. The new Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument, also known by the unpronounceable abbreviation NDICI was was adopted by Parliament and the Council. And it includes, for the first time, a 10 percent target, over eight billion euros, specifically dedicated to migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, And finally, this time is different because we now have a series of new innovating tools at our disposal that can operationally support the external dimension of the new pact. And these include the reinforced role of our new EU agencies, EASO for asylum and Frontex for border management, and more effective framework for returns to ensure that procedures are respected and work in practise. We also have the annual assessment of third countries cooperation on readmission under the new visa code, which gives us an opportunity to take stock, discuss with partners and propose concrete visa measures to incentivise cooperation. And we have also support to the reintegration of returnees as set out in our recently adopted strategy for voluntarily returns.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, As far as legal migration arrangement is concerned, we have just launched, last Friday, a strategic discussion on talent partnerships between high level representatives of member states and stakeholders. Our objective there is to significantly scale up the very successful pilot projects we are running now, which have indeed shown that the EU can successfully support member states in implementing legal migration schemes for the mutual benefit of partner countries, migrant workers and employers

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, I'm highly encouraged that this new understanding of how important the external dimension of migration policy shaping is now becoming a reality. For the first time after six years, we had the joint meeting of EU Foreign and Home Affairs Ministers together. On the 15th of March under the Portuguese presidency. And that was a fantastic opportunity to reconfirm that Europe is playing together. With the same objective, with the same strategic priority and with the same mindset.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Dear friends, I know that the pandemic will inevitably shape our migration policies. And I know there is a panel that will discuss this later in more detail. What I would like to say is that as we start to get out of this global health challenge and we start to gradually lift the restrictions, we need to make sure that our migration systems are ready it to handle what comes next. And it's not a secret that the decline of socioeconomic conditions in third countries, the standstill in tourism has exacerbated many of the trends that underlie the emergence of migration flows. So we need to be able to cope and we need to be able to prepare. And this time we need to have the architects doing their job before the firefighters, as was the case five and six years ago.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Let me conclude to say that it would be naive to build an EU migration and asylum policy on the assumption of a stable geopolitical environment around us. This will not happen. The recent events at the border of Ceuta and the past events, the border with Turkey Nowruz, were a stark reminder that Europe cannot afford to be complacent or unprepared. Reaching an agreement on the new Pact for Migration and Asylum, as soon as possible, should be a priority of the European Union and should be a priority across party lines and across national lines.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, We all know that the absence of a robust, functioning, single system for migration and asylum remains the biggest pull factor for irregular arrivals. The absence of an agreement is feeding the business model of the smugglers and taking a heavy toll on human lives. The European Union has the means, the tools and the collective clout to put in place a system that works, a system that works in practise and to build partnerships for the benefit of Europe, of our current country partners, of refugees and migrants alike. We do not need any more incidents like those in Ceuta or Evros to remind us. We do not need any more sunken boats and bodies washing ashore. We do not need any more reminders. We need to step up to the challenge. And the moment is now. Thank you.