The failure of the European Union as regards the efficient tackling of the refugee crisis has largely been triggered by the fact that European leaders disregarded their own decisions and the relevant European regulations. This is the conclusion expressed by MEP Iuliu Winkler (UDMR, EPP) in his written declaration submitted during the debate on the refugee crisis, the protection of EU´s external borders and the future of the Schengen Area, Tuesday night, in the European Parliament’s (EP) Plenary session in Strasbourg.
“EU asylum and migration policies have lamentably failed in 2015. We have to turn this failure into a functioning European response to the migration crisis. In order to do so we must understand what went wrong. We did not respect our own rules: neither the Dublin Regulation, nor the Schengen Regulation was respected. We did not respect our own decisions: out of 5 hotspots in Greece we have one; out of 6 in Italy, only 2. We did not secure EU’s external borders, while the European Border and Coast Guard is still in its making” declared the UDMR MEP. In his declaration, Winkler further stressed that the European Council took the decision to relocate 160.000 refugees through a majority decision, against the position of some Member States (MS). The European Council opted for a majority decision on a highly sensitive issue, where consensus, and thus unanimity, should have been sought-after. “Relocation will not fly”, emphasized the MEP, who added as supporting evidence that not more than 300 individuals have been effectively transferred since.
In his opinion, another large mistake is the mixing of things. “We mixed up things that should not be mixed. There is confusion between refugees and migrants since we lack the criteria to distinguish between them. We also confuse migrants coming from outside the EU with “internal migrants” who in fact are European citizens who benefit of the fundamental right to free movement”, further declared Winkler. In the closing of his declaration, the MEP flagged the fact that, in finding a solution to the migration and refugees crisis, the EU cannot waste more time. This European crisis needs European solutions, worked out in genuine solidarity”, pointed out Winkler. The migration and refugees issue will be debated Wednesday afternoon in the EP, amid a roundtable discussion attended by members of the Franche-Comté Regional Association, belonging to the Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defense in France. This debate will see the participation of MEPs Iuliu Winkler, Cristian Preda and Ioan-Mircea Pașcu, as speakers.