The European People’s Party (EPP) has defended on Monday that European funds can be used to pay for the construction of infrastructure to curb the arrival of migrants to the European Union, as part of its position for the European Council next week in which European leaders will address the rise of migration.
In a meeting with journalists in the European Parliament, the Dutch MEP Jeroen Lenaers said that the summit on February 9 and 10 in Brussels should be the time to move from words to deeds on migration and take steps forward, with a view to approving the migration pact before the end of the legislature.
In this sense, against the position of the European Commission to speed up the return of migrants and give more capacity to the EU border and coast guard (Frontex), as well as to protect the external borders, the coordinator of the EPP in matters of interior and justice has defended investing European funds in border infrastructures.
«If twelve Member States claim that the priority is to spend more funds on border protection, we will have to treat it as a priority,» he said, betting on breaking the «taboo» that is for the European Executive the financing of walls or fences.
Thus, he has defended that it should be contemplated «if the Member States consider that it is the best way to protect their border». «The option must be there to be able to use European funds, we are not going to force countries that do not want to build these infrastructures, but if they consider it the best way, we must be there,» he insisted.
This step forward comes in the face of the situation that Member States like Bulgaria are going through, after Austria has asked to allocate 2,000 million to a facility that blocks the passage of migrants from Turkey. Thus he has branded as «unfair» that the president of the European Commission, the also ‘popular’ Ursula von der Leyen, ensures that the situation in Bulgaria is a «priority» but is not open to help with European funds to protect the border.
Lenaers has pointed to different European instruments such as the asylum fund or the internal security fund to be able to finance these initiatives, in the midst of an ongoing battle with Brussels, which so far has ruled out this scenario and has focused on strengthening cooperation with the countries of origin and redoubling the role of Frontex.
Similarly, the position of the ‘popular’ group, which will be formally adopted this Wednesday before the plenary session in Brussels, recovers the idea of landing platforms» of migrants «outside Europe» in order to put an end to the business model of traffickers. This proposal, suggested in 2018 by the then President of the European Council Donald Tusk, would allow greater control of migration and legal avenues for those who need protection in Europe, defend from the ranks of the EPP.
According to Lenaers, faced with the current scenario in which those healthy enough and with the means to pay for the crossing to Europe arrive, the EU-27 must defend a model that helps the most vulnerable and refugees to find the protection they need in Europe.
Regarding solidarity between countries, the ‘popular’ parliamentary has stressed that the distribution of migrants between EU countries has so far blocked negotiations, so he has argued that for this type of mechanism to work, it should be done on a voluntary basis.
In this sense, he concluded that solidarity should be expressed not only with the distribution of migrants arriving in Europe, but with all elements of migration policy such as human resources or financial instruments made available by the EU to address the issue.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
