1
Feb
2023
Watch
Preparation of the Special European Council meeting of February, in particular the need to develop sustainable solutions in the area of asylum and migration (debate)
Mr President, what Mr Weber said, that walls are not taboo, frightened me a little. I never saw the Berlin Wall as a taboo, nor the wall in Nicosia. So I find his statement rather misplaced – not to say unhistorical. A pragmatic and humanitarian response to the issue can only be achieved at European level through legal and controlled safe pathways, with an application for asylum combined with a mandatory equal and proportionate relocation of refugees to all Member States. I agree with what the Socialists have said: Solidarity is forced, not games with the word. European leadership must stop funding and strengthening primarily the causes of the refugee crisis, such as the war and the climate crisis, and focus on projects aimed at the well-being of people at home. What we are seeing today is a failed management and we have created a machine that eats up billions of Europe's citizens to produce new deadlocks, oppression and death. And, of course, there is a simple question: Walls between Europe and accession countries like Turkey? Is Turkey a safe country or not? That's a big question. Let us not fool people and – of course – let us not play with far-right scenarios.