Guy VERHOFSTADT @ Debates - Tuesday, 6 October 2015 - Conclusions of the informal European Council o

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to be organised – because this crisis did not start a few days or a few weeks ago. Then, what was produced from this summit was a one-page statement. This is all that was produced from an informal summit of the European Council on the most important crisis Europe has faced in the last decade – a refugee crisis such as we have never seen before. One page: mainly repeating decisions about the 120 000 refugees that have already been taken by the Ministers for the Interior, and then also pledging EUR 1 billion in additional money. I ask myself how many people from Syria have to die and how many additional people from Syria have to flee to Europe before the European Council takes a comprehensive, global approach to this refugee crisis, as is proposed by the Commission? It is not that you have nothing to work with. A few hours before the European Council, the Commission decided on a global package: including a new European asylum system no longer based on the Dublin Regulation; including a new European migration package in which we create one system, a blue-card system, in Europe – not 28 systems; and including, perhaps most importantly, a European border and coastguard proposal – that, by the way, Mr Tusk, the Ministers of the Interior refused to put in their conclusions on 11 September 2015. They did not talk about it. So I am asking: what is needed? Why was it not possible for this European Council in its summit to decide on the package proposed by the Commission? Parliament has already backed this package. So what is happening? Why can the European Council not overcome these internal divisions? My proposal is very clear, namely that we – the Council and Parliament – should agree to a fast-track procedure for the Commission proposal: to adopt it as quickly as possible, as these procedures are there. Secondly, my proposal concerns the external borders of Europe. Regarding this conflict in Syria, is it not time that the European Union – you the European Council, you Mr Tusk and Ms Mogherini – took an initiative? For the moment we are being pushed out. The Russians are taking action. What they are mainly doing is bombing – bombing civilians and citizens in Syria and the last of the remaining Free Syrian Army fighters. I do not know if there are many of them, but at the moment they are being killed by Russian bombs. We are the ones who are facing the consequences of this refugee crisis, not the Russians or the Americans. They are talking about Syria, while we, who will face all the consequences of it, are not taking any initiative at European level for the moment. We actually have three different opinions within the Council about this. So take the initiative: call a summit and have 28 bilateral meetings, giving Ms Mogherini a full mandate and also enforcing no-fly safe zones. The current situation is crazy. I hear people saying that it is not possible and that you need a mandate from the UN. No – apparently, to bomb Syrian citizens you do not need a mandate from the UN, but to protect Syrian citizens you need a mandate. Such an approach is completely crazy. Finally, we also need a new donor conference. There is not enough money in these refugee camps. So, Mr Tusk, I am counting on you. The 28 Heads of State are not going to solve these problems. They are not capable of doing so, as they each represent only a nation. You represent a continent. Assume your responsibility. (Applause) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20151006+ITEM-003+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=en&query;=INTERV&detail;=2-014-000