Debate on the Refugee emergency, external borders control and future of Schengen during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg. Statement Bert KOENDERS, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&D, IT), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE).

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

Schengen reform package (T)

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

PITTELLA, Gianni (S&D, IT)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

KAMALL, Syed (ECR, UK)

AVRAMOPOULOS, Dimitris (EL, EC)

HARMS, Rebecca (Greens/EFA, DE)

surveillance of the external borders of the EU (T)

KOENDERS, Bert (NL)

Refugee emergency, external borders control and future of Schengen: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Bert KOENDERS, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Time to address this crisis is running out, we have to manage the situation before spring when large numbers of migrants are expected to take to the seas to reach Europa and are possibly be killed on the road. The influx of migrants must be reduced and measures should not only aim at the short term but also at the longer term, the Council therefore insists that we continue our joint efforts in reducing the influx; better managing the situation in our member states and implementing the decisions taken at the highest level.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bert KOENDERS, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Only 400 applications have been relocated and the number of member states which have not yet pledged any places is high. It is not acceptable that decisions adopted by the Council and Parliament are not implemented by all member states, more should be done to release pressure from Italy and Greece, all member states must participate in the relocation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Our Turkey counterparts also informed us about opening up segments of the Turkish labour market to allow Syrian refugees to work. The COM is working closely with both the Greek and the Turkish authorities to scale up the returns under the existing bi-lateral agreement and awaiting the full entry into force of the EU-Turkey agreement.

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Border control, I think there we have one expectation that we would like to carry towards the European Council, that borders need to be controlled and you need to be honest and say no to people without a visa or without a refugee background. Secondly we need to re-inforce our authorities. If the Frontex director says, that the Frontex staff in Greece is not using the Schengen information system, because we restricted the use of it, then we exaggerated here with data protection.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT), 10.000 children missing, how is that possible, why nobody is bringing this up or is thinking about these children? What kind of dangers do refugees, the people flying wars, cause?

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), Dublin does need completely to be re-written; it needs changes to work better. And to make sure that refugees remain in the countries offering asylum, but in order to stabilize the situation in short term and focus help on genuine refugees let us agree which countries can take refugees and how many. Not impose it upon them, let those countries that cannot take refugees help with money and equipment, boats and personal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), The European Commission, 2 or 3 days ago, last week has presented an analysis of the border controls between Greece and Turkey and it does not work, people are not registered that's why there are thousands of young refugees and that is the reason for the Europol analysis document, people not kept under the right conditions, there is no distinction made between economic migrants on this border, it does not work. So our proposal is very simple, you have to use article 78 of Treaty, 78 of the Treaty gives you the possibility to take emergency measures and to take over the border and to create a rapid response force, that is in fact what you want with the European border and coast guard and to send people to there.

SOUNDBITE (German), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE), We are also in favour of better management of our borders, we also in favour of working together with the Greeks to take on a share of this European responsibility, but we are very aware that these external borders cannot hermetically sealed, I'm horrified that there is talk about shooting the refugees in Germany, of all places.