EP LIBE delegation to Latvia and Lithuania: Press point by Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D,ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando L&Oacute;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, Good afternoon, and thank you for your kind attendance to this press point. This is a European Parliament official delegation, the Committee of Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, which I chair. Representing all the relevant political groups, which expressed the political pluralism of the European Parliament, representing directly for a hundred and fifty million European citizens, including all Latvians, all Lithuanians. So we are representing here this European dimension of both Latvian and Lithuanian citizenship in a very tight agenda that we have been conducted for the last three days. No stop from seven a.m. to late at night. Having a series of interlocutor stakeholders, making meaningful use of every point in our agenda, including, of course, most especially the field visits. That is the main purpose of a European Parliament delegation when traveling to a member state of the European Union: field visit, fact finding. That is getting to ...

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, So the first point I would like to share with you is that we have visited in three days, busiest agenda full from early in the morning to late at night, two member states of the European Union worth considering because they're facing a huge challenge in their external border of the European Union. It's not the external border of Latvia with Russia or Belarus, it's not the external border of Lithuania with Russia and Belarus. It's the external border of the European Union. That is our concern.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, And our aim here is to improve the EU response to the challenges that are faced by these particular member states in this piece of external border of the European Union. As in the case of any other external border of the European Union, and the background is that the LIBE Committee is the one responsible for policy making and lawmaking, both in migratory and asylum issues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, We do make laws in the European Parliament and we have put in place a European Migration Package consisting of nothing less than eight pieces of legislation by now. And we have put in place an asylum package. Meant to build up a European common asylum system consisting of nothing less than nine pieces of legislation. But they are to be improved, and there is actually underway in the committee of liberty, justice, home affairs and legislative procedure meant to improve that migration and asylum law of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, So we are here to check fact finding, getting to know better, draw lessons, draw consequences and put pressure into the European institutions. First, the European Parliament, but also the scrutiny we exercise on the European Commission, which is guardian of the treaties and guardian of the European law. And the agencies, which also relate to the committee: Frontex, External Borders Agency, European Asylum Agency, Fundamental Rights Agency. All of them have a very relevant say in assessing the challenges that are being faced in this piece of external border of the European Union, Latvia and Lithuania.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, The second consideration I wanted to share with you is that, yes, we heard the testimonies of officials. We heard very carefully the testimony of the border guards, which are doing their job with the tools they have, with the mandate they receive. But we also have visited facilities centers, reception centers, detention centers, detention centers. And there is European law, which is to be respected. So, we expressed the concern about the standard, which is to be observed when fully protecting the rights of the human beings which are being dealt with in those facilities, beat migrant camps, beat retention centers, beat detention centers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, There is law. Which is to be respected. There is European law, which is mandatory in all member states of the European Union, including Latvia and Lithuania, all of the member states are to observe those European standards. There is such thing as a European Asylum Procedure. There is such a thing as a European Qualification Directive. There is such thing as a Fundamental Rights Charter of the European Union, in which there are rights which protect not only European citizens, but all human beings upon whom EU law is to be applied or implemented. So we take notice that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, Those people in the facilities that we have visited are sending a message that the new standard is to be respected first, and it should be improved with the assistance of EU funds, Migration and Asylum Fund Solidarity Fund when needed. The Civil Protection Fund in order to attend certain emergency situations. And rights and values, programs to finance NGOs, which are also paying a very relevant service in the field.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, There are many NGOs which are protecting migrants which are willing to protect migrants and asylum seekers, and they are willing to add value as to their rights to be properly observed. So we are making this point. We have seen situations that are clearly to be improved. These people have right to legal assistance, to get to know what their rights are, to a remedy when they see that there is a negative decision as to their asylum request. They have a right to interpretation in a language they can understand.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, They have a right to medical attention to be checked regularly, particularly in situations which are most vulnerable kids. Newborns, little children that we have talked to, vulnerable women pregnant. So there is a situation here that we should mind of, and we are willing to exert all our scrutiny power upon the commission and upon the agency so that they can actually deliver in order to properly assist the authorities of these two countries that we have visited, Latvia and Lithuania. As it is the case of every other member state facing challenges when it comes to abrupt migratory fluxes, irregular entries into the territory of the European Union, and they are all bound to the same principles.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, We stick to those principles. They are enshrined actually in the European treaty. Shared responsibility and binding solidarity. That's the way we want it. That's that's the course we fight for in the European Union. That means that we are here also to make sure that Lithuania, Latvia has the not only the right, but the title to shared responsibility and solidarity from the rest of the member states.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, The third point is that we appreciate the progress that has to be made. We understand the huge challenges, the difficulties that they face, the authorities of these two countries that we have visited. We understand that there's a moment in which a certain influx was not expected, but got on the race very abruptly and not per chance. There was no accident, it was what has been called a hybrid attack by a dictator nearby: Lukashenko's regime. Accomplish with the aggression by Russia on Ukraine. Notorious dictator in the soil of Europe happens to be your neighbor, happens to be the neighbor of all of us. And with no cooperation from that side, there has been what we have been calling, in the European Parliament, the weaponization of vulnerable, most vulnerable, human beings.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, I understand that poses a huge challenges on the authorities and the capacity to respond of the countries in the frontline, be it Latvia or Lithuania. But, yet, EU law matters. EU law matters not only in the good times, but especially in the rough times, especially in the hard times, and this there is a hard time ongoing, had a peak in the summertime. Now it's winter. The peak could be again on the rise any time soon, when the weather improves, so we need to be prepared and there EU standards is to be improved is to be hired is to be strengthened, to be enforced. This this is our task for for being here.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, And the final point I would like to make is that: this delegation of us, this visiting of the European Parliament was planned much beforehand, but it happens to take place in a particular point of time, in a particular minute in which we are suffering in all of Europe. In all of Europe, the impact of the intolerable, unacceptable, unlawful aggression of Putin's Russia on Ukraine. And that will certainly have consequences. And we got to be ready to face the consequences. Also all together, acting together and expressing solidarity all together.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, The Temporary Protection Directive has been activated. It has been a long claim by our committee Committee of Justice Home Affairs on the commission activated the Temporary Protection Directive, which has been in use for 20 years now. It's been activated precisely to grant immediate protections to the millions, which are expected, millions Ukrainians who are expected. You will be having your share. All of us will be having our share of solidarity to Ukrainians fleeing from the war, from the horror and the pain and the fear of the war of aggression waged by Putin against a sovereign European state, Ukraine.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, But that means that we will have to increase again the pressure on the Commission and on the budgetary allocations, which are to be financing that particular instrument of solidarity, which is now under way. There has to be a higher level of financion, budgetary allocations as to assist the effort of solidarity, which is to be deployed in order to grant the responder the standard of the EU level, which is expected by all those many Ukrainians, expected to be millions, it's almost a million by now.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, According to the data that we have certified, are espected to be millions of Ukrainians and waiting for the European Union solidarity, which is not only words, it's got to be fact. So it's been a learning experience. This of us hearing in Latvia and Lithuania, and we wish that the authorities of both countries, not only the best delivery, but also the the the we are here to assure that the solidarity and the backup of European institutions is to be activated and mobilized to its very best so that the kind of response that those people who have been cared for after the peak of the hybrid attack are properly attended, considering that the numbers are not high, are not that high. I know that this might seem worth discussing.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Chair of the LIBE delegation, But I'm making the point because there are some thousands, few thousands of them, who made it according to this hybrid attack, and there are many external borders of the European Union, which receive regularly, thousands and thousands and thousands. And it takes, of course, some time cannot be done overnight, but it takes the European backup and the European instruments and the European facilities and the European budgetary allocations in order to improve the type of response as to proper, respectful respect of the human rights involved to those thousands who were weaponised by this hybrid attack, by Lukashenko's regime, so that they can actually feel that while in the European Union, they are always treated as human beings and their fundamental rights are always respected. Those are the points I wanted to share, and I'm willing to take your questions.