Memoclip on the EP role on migration. Extracts from the vote on the situation in the Mediterranean and the need for a holistic EU approach to migration. (Plenary session Strasbourg 17/12/2014). Debate on the latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and EU migration and asylum policies (Report of the extraordinary European Council (23 April 2015). Extracts from the&nbsp;debate on the latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and EU migration and asylum policies (Plenary session Strasbourg 29/04/2015). Extracts of the votes on the latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and EU migration and asylum policies. Extracts from the vote of resolution on EU migration and asylum policies. Extracts from the vote on Member States responsible for examining the application for international protection of unaccompanied minors&nbsp; (Brussels 06/05/2015).

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

debate

plenary session

vote

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

PITTELLA, Gianni (S&D, IT)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

LAMBERTS, Philippe (Greens/EFA, BE)

JUNCKER, Jean-Claude (LU)

FARAGE, Nigel (NI, UK)

WIKSTRÖM, Cecilia (ALDE, SE)

KAMALL, Syed (ECR, UK)

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

asylum procedures in the EU (T)

TUSK, Donald (PL)

Asylum policy (T2)

asylum, migration and integration fund (T)

Memoclip: Migration - The role of the EP

Title:  Memoclip: Migration - The role of the EP (I108108) 

Title: Vote on the situation in the Mediterranean and the need for a holistic EU approach to migration - extracts from the vote (Plenary session Strasbourg 17/12/2014)

Antonio TAJANI, EP Vice-President, conducting the vote on the EP resolution from 17 December 2014 on the situation in the Mediterranean and the need for a holistic EU approach to migration, and members voting (7 shots)

Title: The latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and EU migration and asylum policies (Report of the extraordinary European Council (23 April 2015): extracts from the Council and Commission statements (EBS I102137)(Plenary session Strasbourg 20/04/2015)

SOUNDBITE (English), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, "We will confront the smugglers and traffickers. The people smugglers in North Africa and elsewhere are cynical, ruthless and often violent. They take the live saving of the desperate and leave them to drown in the sea, worse they deliberate place vessels in dangerous situations. Leaders have asked the High Preventative to take actions, including a possible CSDP operation to identify, capture and destroy the smugglers vessels before they are used."

SOUNDBITE (English), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, "The best way to protect people from drowning is to ensure that they do not get on the boat in the first place. Almost none of the migrants are Libyans, therefore we will help the countries around Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Mali, and Niger among others to monitor and to control the land borders and travel routes."

SOUNDBITE (English), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council , "The final element was the need to do more on refugee protection. We all know that this is a difficult and sensitive debate, still we made some progress. This includes the full and effective implementation of the Common European Asylum system to ensure the same standards in all member states and increase of emergency aid to front member states and the deployment of support teams to help process asylum claims."

SOUNDBITE (English), Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the EC, "Triton funding is going to be beefed up to a 120 Million Euros, that is precisely the extend of the Mare Nostrum budget, in other words we are catching up, we are making up for the temporary cut which resulted to the end of Mare Nostrum and has cost human lives." (Applause)

SOUNDBITE (French), Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the EC, "It is one thing to tackle the symptoms of the crisis as President Tusk has said, everything possible must be done to stop unfortunate people taking these awful boats, we have to be able to save Human lives in the places from where they come to stop them, stop the same Human lives ending on the high seas and that means an increase in developing aid, it is essential."

SOUNDBITE (French), Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the EC, "We have to be sure that we deal with the tricky questions of legal migration. We have to leave the door partly open, if we don't open the door to legal migration then the unfortunate people of the world will be climbing in through our windows."

Title: Latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and EU migration and asylum policies: extracts from the vote (EBS I102117) (Plenary session Strasbourg 29/04/2015)

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP Group leader, "First of all, as far as Syrian refugees are concerned, of course we should welcome them, they are fleeing a civil war. But at the same time we have an issue in term of the fact that these people arrive on the territory of Europe, they can't actually prove their refugee status, the processus are not the right ones, so we need to discuss about that, we need to talk about 3rd countries as well : to which one can we send back people swiftly ? And also development aid, this is something we need to negotiate with the Commission and the countries concerned, as it is all very well sending development aid but at the same time we would expect them to take back those people who cannot prove their refugee status."

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP group leader, "But colleagues, if you say that if you open up the door, to legal migration, to our labour market, that this would put and end to all the misery and destitution around the mediterranean region, I'm afraid you're wrong, we're talking about maybe hundred thousands, maybe a million Africans !"

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT), S&amp;D group leader, "It won't be through building trenches on the sea that we will protect ourselves, without having a long-term vision on Africa we won't be solving the problem. Today a toddler in Africa is supposed to live 30 years less than an European baby : behind immigration there are people craving for life."

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), ECR Group leader, "Those who seek asylum should be told quickly if they meet he criteria, but if they are unsuccessful they should be returned quickly. And if they are offered refuge, will it be permanent ? Or countries will be able to ask them to return home when the reasons for their asylum is no more relevant ?"

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), "Europe urgently needs policies for the immigration. The reality is that our continent is rapidly shrinking as part of the world population. European counted for approximatively 20% of the world population in the 50's, whereas now we're merely 7%. We need immigration in order to maintain our prosperity. Now talking about legal immigration is maybe controversial and maybe not very popular, but that is what leadership is all about, it's not about finding the lowest common denominator or only taking easy popular decisions, leadership is about the courage to take tough decisions and I welcome the words of Mister Juncker who is showing leadership in this respect and I would wish that the Council would do the same."

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), "Most of the people we're actually talking about which we refer to as foreign fighters are actually home-grown, they're EU citizens, and if anything Europe has been exporting terrorism, jihadists travelling over there, and what we're talking about today is rescuing people who are drowning in the mediterranean sea and are fleeing war and conflict and precisely those people you're talking about, and this has nothing to do with a flood of jihadists coming to Europe and that is only invented by Mister Farage to get himself elected on the 7th of May."

SOUNDBITE (French), Philippe LAMBERTS (Greens/EFA, BE), Greens/EFA Group leader, "Mister Tusk who are you afraid of ? Hundreds of thousands of men and women who had to leave their homes ? You and I would not do this, not happily so, but they are doing this to flee from war from conflict from the destruction of their lives, and you and your colleagues heads of states and governments, what you have decided is to dig your heels in. What I'm trying to say is that these hundreds and thousands, should be kept where they are, so that we can then turn our gaze away and continue our business as usual."

SOUNDBITE (French), Philippe LAMBERTS (Greens/EFA, BE), Greens/EFA Group leader, "Lebanon is actually receiving refugees to a figure of 25% of its population. It's almost untenable for them. In the meanwhile, Europe finds it hard to welcome 1 refugee for every 1000 inhabitants in Europe and only a few Member States are sharing this burden. We expect the European Union to set up pathways to legal and safe migration, because if we want to control the process, then we have to make it legal, that's the best way of doing it."

SOUNDBITE (English), Nigel FARAGE (EFDD, UK), EFDD Group leader, "We are guilty for this crisis, we are directly guilty for the drownings that are going on, and we are hypocrites in this place when we talk about poverty in Africa, when we pursue our Common Agricultural Policy that put barriers to them selling us their agricultural products, when we have fishery policy that rapes and pillages their seas and is cause of environmental disruption, and we just soilage our consciences by giving away a bit of foreign aid."

Title: Vote on the latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and EU migration and asylum policies - extracts from the vote (EbS I102120) (Brussels 29/04/2015)

Vote of resolution I-102120 on EU migration and asylum policies. Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT) presides the vote.

Results of the vote: Votes: 672 +: 449 -: 130 Abstentions: 93

Title: Emergency relocation mechanism of asylum seekers and refugees within the EU: - extract from the vote 

Vote (11 shots). Final result: 56 votes, 42 in favour, 14 against, no abstentions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), Rapporteur, "We've been now voting on the report on the relocation scheme that only applies in emergencies, in this particular case iin Italy and Greece, and it talks about... well the Commission had proposed 40,000 refugees to be relocated from Italy and Greece, which is a, well, small number and that's what we say in the report now very clearly, that this is an initial number that when the Commission comes up with the permanent relocation scheme, which will happen in the end of the year then the number needs to be much more substantial. 40,000 can only be the start."

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), Rapporteur, "Greece has a particular problem because they now have overtaken Italy in the number of arrivals, they have very poor facilities especially in the islands or no facilities because the numbers have really gone up and clearly Greece has very big economic problems so there have already been food shortages for refugees and I really think that the European Union needs to be doing more about this taking now 16,000 refugees from Greece is a start, it can only be a start, that's very little, if we look at a daily arrival amount of a thousand refugees is the islands."

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), Rapporteur, "I think it's really a great pity that member states couldn't agree to a binding mechanism but then they promised that they will take on board 40,000 refugees and still they haven't provided enough numbers to add up to those 40,000 so I think if that does not happen until Monday it will be a blow into the face of European Union solidarity."

Title: Vote on Member State responsible for examining the application for international protection of unaccompanied minors: extracts from the vote and statement by Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE,SE) , rapporteur (EbS  I102615) (Brussels 06/05/2015)

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, "We have now special provisions for children. We are exempting them form the Dublin procedure, which means that it's the Member-State where the child is present and has launched his or her latest application that should also asses the asylum claims. Which means that the days are over when European Member-States were sending children back and forth across the borders."

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, "I'm really releaved, it's high time that we did this, and this is now the profound voice of the European Parliament. It's a great victory, not for the Parliament but for these children that we are talking about."

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, (Asked about whether Member-States will follow the new rules if adopted) "Well, crimes do happen and people are breaching the laws. And countries might try to do that, too. But this is going to be illegal. This is a regulation and it's for Member-States to actually adapt to and react to this, in line with the Court ruling, the Commission-proposed text and the Parliament's will."

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, (About Member-States) "They will be trying to introduce a completely different interpretation of the Court ruling. I really hope that that is a no-go for them."

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, "I have a very, very strong mandate from this House, which means that I had 49 votes in favour, 3 against. It goes without saying that this is a very, very strong mandate. And I'm happy for that."

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, "Not as today when 15 Member-States are taking responsibility and 13 are doing... nothing. I think it's high time that we now, we have managed to create a Monetary Union, we are on our way to create an Energy Union, it's high time that we now build a Humanitarian Union."