During the plenary session (21-24/10/2019) of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on search and rescue in the Mediterranean.

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Juan Fernando (S&D, ES)

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

URBÁN CRESPO, Miguel (The Left, ES)

death of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea (T)

HAHN, Johannes (AT, EC)

MARQUARDT, Erik (Greens/EFA, DE)

TUPPURAINEN, Tytti (FI)

Search and rescue in the Mediterranean (SAR): extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Every time there has been a tragedy in the Mediterranean, 1,000 dead human lives in the Mediterranean only this year we had more than on a regular basis, almost ritually. It is not the case that we ritually deplore this tragedy and it is about time that we are going about change and call the Commission and the Council for real action on the matter and this the aim of this concise resolution.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tytti TUPPURAINEN, Finnish Minister for European Affairs, In order to enable our partners to carry out these responsibilities we offer additional support for the northern Africa States such as Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria in migrations management, including carrying out certain rescue activities and disembarkation under International law. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Commissioner-designate, Budget and Administration, Those involved in search and rescue operations should comply with relevant International rules. The EU legislation and facilitation of unauthorized entry, transit and residence does not require Member States to criminalize the genuine assistance to migrants, on the contrary, it provides for the possibility to exempt this type of contact for criminalization under national law. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Finally the Member States should step up their moral and legal obligations to save lives at sea and adopt a proactive approach to Search and Rescue making use of all available vessels and to cooperate and support NGOs in their efforts. Essentially the resolution addresses on the one hand what the Commission can do and what the new Commission can do and then the Member States, because for the Member States this blame game which is simply not demonstrating our values but passing around the blame will continue to drain our resources.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (RE, NL), We cannot wait until the asylum package has been adopted, as there are people drowning we simply have to make sure that there is sufficient capacity in the Mediterranean and the point is that if the EU, if the Member States are leaving the gap, then what we see is NGOs or sometimes commercial vessels fill in that gap.

SOUNDBITE (German), Erik MARQUARDT (Greens/EFA, DE), We live in an Union where we are not sending rescue vessels to rescue people, we live in an Union whose been banned from taking people to Libya and what are we doing? We are paying the Libyans to these people back, so this is shameful, we need Search And Rescue operations (SAR) which is a proper rescue operation and we expect that FRONTEX planes will try to inform all vessels in the area to save lives and we hope that we will not simply force the people to return to a civil war from which they have actually just fled. I continue in English. We can discuss details, we can fight and debate but in the end I think we should all agree that our European way is to protect lives. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Miguel URB&#193;N CRESPO (GUE/NGL, ES), Closing ports to refugees, like Salvini did was equally twisted than threatening vessels with fines due to the lack of rescuing licences as Pedro S&aacute;nchez was intending to do. I will say yet again, saving lives is not a crime. Europe is becoming xenophobic as those other people in the other side of this Chamber. Institutional racism is leading the Union border policy. We need no Fortress Europe, we need safe and secure maritime routes, a European public search and rescue service, we must stop the violations of human rights on the crossing borders. Libya is not a safe port and we must stop any further cooperation with this so-much-called Libyan Coast Guard.