The Plenary discusses the need for a speedy adoption of a comprehensive European pact on asylum and migration as well as challenges in member states. In the context of continued arrivals of refugees and migrants to the EU by sea, MEPs will debate with the Spanish Council Presidency and the Commission the state of play of negotiations on the new European rules on migration and asylum. The situation in some countries, such as Italy –and particularly on the island of Lampedusa- could feature prominently. Opening statements by Pascual NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union and by Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of promoting our European Way of Life. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

asylum procedures in the EU (T)

SCHINAS, Margaritis (EPP-DE, EL, EC)

new pact on asylum and migration (T)

NAVARRO RÍOS, Pascual Ignacio

The need for a speedy adoption of the asylum and migration package: opening statements by Pascual NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the EU and by Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO R&Iacute;OS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, President, Ladies and gentlemen. Commissioner, Vice President Commissioner. Before going into the topic on the agenda, the urgency of adopting this package, allow me to briefly refer to the external dimension of migration.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, We've had a debate on the MOU with Tunisia, 12th of September in this Parliament. Since then, we have seen chaos in Lampedusa. Thousands of persons arriving in a very short space of time. The figures are on the rise all of these maritime routes. Central Mediterranean, very high numbers. We've seen an increase of irregular arrivals through the Greek islands, Cyprus, Canaries, as well as peninsular Spain.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, These figures mean that we have to act holistically. We have a ten point plan for Lampedusa from the Commission. In accordance with that, we need to address a number of areas and we need to address both internal and external dimensions of migration.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, 'In the Council meeting, Justice and Home Affairs, 28th of September, the President put forward a proposal in terms of the external orientation of our migration policy in the EU, and we would like to have long-term collaboration with countries of transit and origin and there was unanimous support for our proposal.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, In addition to which, an efficient management of migration in the EU means that we have to tackle both the internal and external dimension, both have to be fully functional. In other words, asylum applications for persons seeking help will be dealt with fairly, and individuals who do not meet the requirements for protection will be returned to their countries of origin whilst fully respecting human rights and whilst fully respecting also the principle of no return.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, That now brings us onto the main point of this debate. This pact on Asylum and Migration Council on several occasions has said that this is a fundamental importance if we are to guarantee our common asylum system. If we want to respond effectively to situations such as the ones that we've seen recently in Lampedusa.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, 'During the summer we made considerable progress in our interinstitutional negotiations regarding the different parts of this pact, different proposals. And as co-legislators, we are determined to move forward. We want to adopt the necessary reform of this asylum system, and we want to do it by the end of this term.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, This cycle, tripartite discussions regarding asylum, regarding the management of asylum and migration are being held regularly. We have different positions in some of the positions between Council and Parliament. Important differences, but we are moving closer together. We are trying to seek rapprochement.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, Regarding the crisis regulation, so far we have not managed to reach an agreement for a date to start negotiations and agreement with Council. Notwithstanding that, I think we're very close to a result in the Justice and Home Affairs Council, 28th of September, a great number of Member States expressed their support to a new draft text to this proposal.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, We are confident, we think that this mandate will be supported by a broad majority soon that would allow us to start interinstitutional negotiations. And we also believe that we will be able to settle the main issues that need to be settled by the end of this cycle by the end of this term. And I very much hope that the tripartite dialogues will resume as soon as possible regarding the Control Regulation and the Eurodac Regulation.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pascual Ignacio NAVARRO RÍOS, Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, Also, I very much hope that we will be able to start or restart all negotiations on this very important proposal and to do so soon. We have no time to lose, particularly bearing in mind recent events in Central Mediterranean. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Dear President, dear Secretary of State, Honourable Members. Before I start, let me, on behalf of the European Commission, express our feelings of sympathy for the terrible accident yesterday in Venice. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the Italian people.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, For the last four years in the Commission, in the current political cycle, when we had to deal with migration, we were obliged to work at the same time as architects and firefighters.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Architects of a new regulatory framework that would be cohesive, holistic, global and that would connect all the dots of a missing European migration and asylum policy. And at the same time as firefighters being obliged to cope with an endless series, a sequence of crises both at our external borders and in other parts of our territory. On the architects strike, I thank you for putting our Asylum and Migration pact on top of this House political agenda.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Recent events once more show that we need a European migration policy. We need the pact and we need it now. The clock has run out on us on how long we can live in a house half built. Parallel to this regulatory work, we see every day our problems emerging.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, The cost of Northern Europe emerging on migration, as we continue to work on the firefighting fronts, reacting to different events on a case by case basis with ad hoc tools and in a patchwork regulatory environment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, This produces some results. It brings us some successes, but it prevents us from reaching the full efficiency, unity and solidarity. I am convinced I know we can achieve. We have all seen the recent images from Lampedusa, and we still have similar images in our mind from Evros, from the Belarus border with Poland, and from states, Baltic Ceuta...

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, 'We have seen the central Mediterranean route - nearly 127,000 people have reached the EU so far from this route, almost double compared to the period last year - there are increasing arrivals to the Greek islands as well as to the Canary Islands. And of course there continue to be secondary movements, mainly towards Germany, France and Belgium.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, More than 600,000 people applied for asylum this year, showing many also arrive legally in Europe. And over 4 million Ukrainian refugees continue to benefit from our blanket temporary protection status. We are addressing these challenges together at the same time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, 'We just renewed the status of temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees until March 2025. We present an effective ten-point plan to support Italy - reinforcing our support to Italy notably through our work on the ground and our EU agencies, where stepping up border surveillance at sea and in the air. And we are supporting proper registration of all people arriving.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Parallel to that, we are reaching on the ground, reaching out to countries of origin and transit in Africa and elsewhere. I have last week travelled to Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea, and I will travel next week to Mauritania and Gambia.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, We are working with these countries of origin to make sure that they understand that they have much more to benefit from the European Union by working with us rather against us. And we have of course, stepped up the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with Tunisia in very specific circumstances, also concerning Fundamental Rights.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Finally, we are putting in place for November a very ambitious legal migration framework: a talent partnership that would align our vacancies in our job markets with available offer and expertise from the countries of origin that want to establish good working relations with. In this aspect, this scheme would certainly allow Tunisians to learn new skills and help meet the severe labour shortages hampering growth in our job market.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Whilst we are addressing these firefighting challenges, we see and we come to an obvious conclusion, unless we are able to address all these issues together at the same time, globally. We will never fully overcome these problems. We must now put in place a common European migration and asylum system, one that we have been building passionately over the last three years, and we are now very close to completing.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, A system that addresses all our difficulties, all our problems with fast procedures at the border to identify asylum or return with mandatory solidarity to helping Member States under pressure, obliging all Member States to contribute according to their ability and needs.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, With a reinforced returns system for those who have no right to be under our protection, umbrella and mutually beneficial migration partnerships with countries of origin, transit and destination to find the smugglers who bring death to our seas and to develop safe legal pathways through Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, All this in one package is called the EU Asylum and Migration Pact. We have come very far, much farther than we dared dream four years ago. Formerly divisive files like the Blue Cards and the asylum agency are now adopted. Interinstitutional trilogues are under way for almost every single proposal in the pact. And as we speak, dear Secretary of State, Coreper is debating the last missing link of the package the crisis regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Like you, all of you, I keenly await the outcome and hope that the ambassadors, the permanent representatives of our Member States will understand the need to produce this agreement, why that while the House of European Democracy is debating the Asylum and Migration pact.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Honourable Members, time is running out. In few months there will be elections. We need the pact done and dusted before Europeans go out to vote. I ask you that once we have the green light from the Council, you adopt your mandate, also on the return directive and continue trilogues on all other files.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, The whole of Europe is now watching us, measuring carefully my word, I would say history is watching us. If we fail, then we will give fuel to the false claims made by the enemies of democracy, by Russian disinformation that Europe is incapable of managing migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, But if we succeed, we will show that Europe can unite on this issue that's so important to our citizens. I remain convinced that the biggest incentive for illegal irregular migration, probably the biggest pull factor, is the lack of a European migration and asylum system.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Loopholes in the system we have today continue to be exploited and abused by smugglers, and this will remain the case until we make a difference. We have so much to be proud of our Union. We are the largest and better regulated internal market in the world. We have the second strongest currency in the world. We are the champions of human rights, privacy, healthcare, education and democracy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, We have everything except a common migration and asylum policy worthy of the name. Three years ago, when we presented the fact that we knew at the time that it would not be an easy journey and our progress so far has been as remarkable as it has been complex. We are so close now. But, it will require sustained efforts from both this House and the Council.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, VP of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, But above all, it will require courage, the courage of our conviction, and the courage to take necessary compromises. We will not rebuild the Parthenon, but we now have a window of opportunity where everybody can agree upon. Thank you very much.