Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee, expresses himself on ECJ ruling on transfers of refugees from Italy and Greece, in the EP in Brussels.

Brussels

EU - Greece (T)

statement

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

EU - Italy (T)

ECJ ruling on transfers of refugees from Italy and Greece: statement by Claude MORAES (S&D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee, This ECJ ruling is extremely important. It draws a line in the sand which says that both legally and morally it is important for relocation to work. The numbers of refugees in a solidarity mechanism that we are trying to relocate within the EU is modest, and the numbers of refugees who are being successfully relocated from Italy and from Greece, are far too low. We have known this for a long time and now the European Court of Justice has very rightly said that numbers are too low, that time taken is far too long and countries like Italy and Greece cannot wait so long. If solidarity means anything, it means that legally now with the ECJ, but also morally, we must have solidarity. And that means that the modest numbers that we are talking about, tens of thousands must be redistributed through this relocation mechanism. These are very small numbers and we cannot continue to have this situation where just a small group of countries in Europe take the greatest burden. we must have a situation where there is better responsibility sharing. There is too much talk of this and not enough action. Now the ECJ is adding its legal weight to this opinion and I'm very happy that this has happened today.