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- "We are ashamed" Statement on the desperate situation in the Mediterranean: "The EU is behaving shamefully": It is time for the European Parliament to act: for circulation and joining in support
"We are ashamed" Statement on the desperate situation in the Mediterranean: "The EU is behaving shamefully": It is time for the European Parliament to act: for circulation and joining in support
07 September 2015
"In August four of us [*] visited Lesvos where we were horrified to see the situation for refugees deteriorate day by day, with no sign of effective intervention 'on the ground' from International Organisations or the governments of the European Union.
The trip made us ashamed of the EU's response, but applies equally to the whole situation caused by EU member states and EU policies, in the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Middle East and Africa.
IN THEORY a European Union which claims to have a common policy for asylum and migration should have created years ago a 24/7 crisis unit for humanitarian aid and civil protection inside the EU, to bring together in real time European, national and local administrative authorities.
Such a network/crisis unit exists for health, agricultural and veterinary emergencies (see the ANIMO network) but apparently has not even been planned for this kind of (very predictable) humanitarian "emergency".
It does not make any sense to plan to spend hundreds of millions of euros on the so called "smart borders" plan, to prevent over-stayers as the EU first priority, instead of facing real human emergencies. Please do not tell us that this is a primarily a Member State responsibility as we perfectly know that some of them are overwhelmed by the numbers of refugees landing on their shores.
The EU policies on migration and asylum, have, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty come under the legislative, institutional and budgetary competence of the European Parliament, which for years has denounced their failings.
But now that the time of decisions has come the Parliament appears trapped by the Commission and the Council in a war of words, documents and task forces which do not change the situation on the ground.
The MEPs should show leadership in this crisis by insisting that the other EU institutions develop an effective humanitarian protection policy on arrival for refugees , and create EU-wide legal channels to be open to migrants (the initiatives are so far limited to the highly skilled and seasonal migrants), by the end of the year. If they do not do so, then the EP should censure the Commission (ejecting it from office) and shut down the Council and European Council, by blocking all funding for their administration. If the parliament does not act now it will be meaningless to hold further elections.
Thanks for sharing."
[*] Statewatchers and members of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control.
Prepared by:
Statewatch (link to Observatory)
European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control
Executive Director of the FREE Group
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