During the plenary session (15-18/07) of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate NGOs’ operations in the Mediterranean and the diverging positions of member states with the Finnish Presidency and the Commission. Statements by Tytti TUPPURAINEN, Finnish Minister for European Affairs, Jeroen LENAERS (EPP, NL), Claude MORAES (S&D, UK), Sophia IN'T VELD (RE, NL), Magid MAGID (Greens/EFA, UK), Nicola PROCACCINI (ECR, IT) and Sira REGO (GUE/NGL, ES).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

LENAERS, Jeroen (EPP, NL)

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

humanitarian aid (T)

PROCACCI, Giovanni (ALDE, IT)

MAGID, Magid (Greens/EFA, UK)

REGO, Sira (The Left, ES)

TUPPURAINEN, Tytti (FI)

Humanitarian assistance in the Mediterranean: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Tytti TUPPURAINEN, Finnish Minister for European Affairs, We need a long term comprehensive and humane solution to manage migration. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Tytti TUPPURAINEN, Finnish Minister for European Affairs, We need to help the front liners, but at the same time we need to understand the challenge as a whole in the secondary movements and integration of migrants as well as in return policy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christos STYLIANIDES, Member of the EC in charge of Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, When it comes to the question of criminalization of migrants smuggling we need to be able to distinguish. Because, one thing is actual migrants smuggling, a deliberate profit making criminal act, and another is providing assistance to people in need. The bottom line here, and I want to underline this, is that no form of genuine assistance to migrants should be criminalized under EU law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen LENAERS (EPP, NL), We need a holistic approach, an approach that focuses on better protecting our external borders, that focuses on returning migrants who came illegally to Europe and have no right to stay. And an approach that focuses on making agreements with third countries of transit and of origin to help us fight those smuggling networks and to help us prevent migrants from entering an overstuffed and unseaworthy vehicles. Such an approach is the only approach in the long term that can actually save lives.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), What is applying now is a real confusion and an ammunition given to some, on the question of the criminalization of humanitarian assistance. And let's be clear, the human instinct, the European instinct, the global instinct to aid people who may be dying as we have just heard is one that we need to clarify and we need to accept as one of our values.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (RE, NL), We need migration. Migration exists. It has existed since the beginning of time. We should manage it. We should control it and we should create legal and safe pathways for legal labour migration to Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Magid MAGID (Greens/EFA, UK), Now fellow brothers and sisters crossing the Mediterranean deserve more than just a statement. Mr President, they deserve the openness of our arms, the safety of our welcomes, and the warmth of our European embraces. Mr President in contrast Matteo Salvini is a coward, a coward because what kind of grown man watches a child drowning gasping for breath and turns his back.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Nicola PROCACCINI (ECR, IT), Let's have the courage and the necessary means to be able to prevent this illegal movements, let's dismantle the taxi-boats and then we will be saving lives in the Mediterranean. 

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Sira REGO (GUE/NGL, ES), Seeing the absence of action from the member states, it is absolutely necessary for this Parliament to work towards the creation of a civil rescue mission at sea, and of course, criminalization of NGOs saving lives in the Mediterranean has to come to an end.