Informal meeting of heads of state or government, in the European Council in Brussels. Arrival of Martin SCHULZ, EP President, press conference and statement.

Brussels

statement

press conference

SCHULZ, Martin (S&D, DE)

meeting of the European Council

extraordinary meeting of the European Council 23 September 2015 (T)

Informal meeting of heads of state or government: arrival of Martin SCHULZ, EP President, extracts from the press conference and statement

Arrival of Martin Schulz, EP President (2 shots)

Round table at the European Council: Martin Schulz, EP President speaking with EU leaders, handshake, general views (12 shots)

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, The UNHCR representative and the Queen of Jordan, a few days ago, made it very clear, that they do not have enough money now. The UNHCR have run out of money this month. If it is not possible to provide basic attention, basic food, water, sanitation to refugees in the camps of Jordan, in Turkey and neighbouring countries, it is hardly surprising that the refugees then leave and come to Europe seeking protection. That is why it is so important to support the countries concerned. It&rsquo;s a question of reason, money is needed.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, It is very important for me to say that, again, it is not a solution to close the internal borders. We need more control on the external borders, we need to register people coming over the external borders, but the hot spots on the external border will only work if we have a system for them, reallocate the individual as they arrived. The two hang together. If we have faire distribution of the refugees, and we need to stabilise our external borders, but not by closing internal borders. This will not solve the problem.

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, Your description is absolutely justified, one crisis follows another one. However, when we look to the crises and we analyse the structure of our debate, and the attempt to manage the crises, there is one common element: we are living in changing times, the world all around us is changing, and Europe must understand that it has to change as well. To global challenges a national answer is impossible. The problem is that we are always starting with national answers and ending with common European strategies. I think one of the conclusions of all these crises you just described is: let&rsquo;s start with European answers.

SOUNDBITE (French), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, The President o the European Council is the representative of a very important movement of liberation in Poland, the Solidarnosc. I do not think it is so simple. There is certainly in Eastern Europe people that are islamophobs, xenophobes, radicals, against certain of our values, but I know a party in our country (i.e: France) which is exactly in this line, and according to the pools is having around 25% of the voters, so we cannot say that it is only a phenomenon in Eastern Europe.

Views in th press room during the press conference (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, It is quite clear that we need a diplomatic initiative for the civil war in Syria, and an encouraging element was that in the last days there were talks between USA and the Russian Federation. For the first time there was visible that there was an approach between these two forces. We need also the cooperation of the Russian Federation and Iran to solve the Syrian problem, in the margin of the general Assembly of the UN next week. I hope and I&rsquo;m optimistic. There is not yet a solution, but there are a lot of increase activities of those who could contribute to build a coalition, first of all diplomatic solution in Syria.

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, We are living in changing times. The XXI century is a century with a lot of global challenges. This is not only elated to the Syrian crises for example, or to Libya. There is also question of the ecological development in the world, the climate change question. Ban Ki-moon spoke just recently about migration as a global phenomenon. 60 million people on our planet are moving for different reasons from their home. That means we are confronted with the problem which is not disappearing tomorrow . This is remaining a challenge and a coming duty. Therefore to global phenomenons, you can not give a national answer. We need, at least, a common European answer.