State of the Union 2015 - Jean-Claude Juncker on the EU asylum & refugee & legal migration policy

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• published: 10 Sep 2015
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EN - State of the Union 2015 - Statement by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Commission, on the European asylum and refugee policy to face the refugee crisis, and the need of a legal migrant status - Full version on migation & refugees - 09.09.2015 - European Parliament, Strasbourg. (Jean-Claude Juncker answers to a UK Independence Party (UKIP)​ MEP yelling at him) EXTRACTS of the transcript: "Whatever work programmes or legislative agendas say: The first priority today is and must be addressing the refugee crisis. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 500,000 people have made their way to Europe. The vast majority of them are fleeing from war in Syria, the terror of the Islamic State in Libya or dictatorship in Eritrea. The most affected Member States are Greece, with over 213,000 refugees, Hungary, with over 145,000, and Italy, with over 115,000. The numbers are impressive. For some they are frightening. (...) This is first of all a matter of humanity and of human dignity. And for Europe it is also a matter of historical fairness. We Europeans should remember well that Europe is a continent where nearly everyone has at one time been a refugee. Our common history is marked by millions of Europeans fleeing from religious or political persecution, from war, dictatorship, or oppression. Huguenots fleeing from France in the 17th century. Jews, Sinti, Roma and many others fleeing from Germany during the Nazi horror of the 1930s and 1940s. Spanish republicans fleeing to refugee camps in southern France at the end of the 1930s after their defeat in the Civil War. Hungarian revolutionaries fleeing to Austria after their uprising against communist rule was oppressed by Soviet tanks in 1956. Czech and Slovak citizens seeking exile in other European countries after the oppression of the Prague Spring in 1968. Hundreds and thousands were forced to flee from their homes after the Yugoslav wars. Have we forgotten that there is a reason there are more McDonalds living in the U.S. than there are in Scotland? That there is a reason the number of O'Neills and Murphys in the U.S. exceeds by far those living in Ireland? Have we forgotten that 20 million people of Polish ancestry live outside Poland, as a result of political and economic emigration after the many border shifts, forced expulsions and resettlements during Poland’s often painful history? Have we really forgotten that after the devastation of the Second World War, 60 million people were refugees in Europe? That as a result of this terrible European experience, a global protection regime – the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees – was established to grant refuge to those who jumped the walls in Europe to escape from war and totalitarian oppression? We Europeans should know and should never forget why giving refuge and complying with the fundamental right to asylum is so important. I have said in the past that we are too seldom proud of our European heritage and our European project. (...) There is certainly an important and unprecedented number of refugees coming to Europe at the moment. However, they still represent just 0.11% of the total EU population. In Lebanon, refugees represent 25% of the population. And this in a country where people have only one fifth of the wealth we enjoy in the European Union. Let us also be clear and honest with our often worried citizens: as long as there is war in Syria and terror in Libya, the refugee crisis will not simply go away. We can build walls, we can build fences. But imagine for a second it were you, your child in your arms, the world you knew torn apart around you. (...) So it is high time to act to manage the refugee crisis. There is no alternative to this. (...) Across Europe we now have common standards for the way we receive asylum seekers, in respect of their dignity. (...) But these standards need to be implemented and respected in practice. (...) Before the summer, the Commission had to start a first series of 32 infringement proceedings to remind Member States of what they had previously agreed to do. (...) European laws must be applied by all Member States. (...) Where Europe has clearly under-delivered, is on common solidarity with regard to the refugees who have arrived on our territory. (...) I call on Member States to adopt the Commission proposals on the emergency relocation of altogether 160,000 refugees at the Extraordinary Council of Interior Ministers on 14 September. We now need immediate action. We cannot leave Italy, Greece and Hungary to fare alone. Just as we would not leave any other EU Member State alone. For if it is Syria and Libya people are fleeing from today, it could just as easily be Ukraine tomorrow. (...)" Full text in EN: europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-15-5614_en.htm © Frédérick Moulin 2015 - EU2015 - European Parliament - All rights reserved.