EPP proposes four key solutions to protect lives and control migration to Europe

EPP proposes four key solutions to protect lives and control migration to Europe

BRUSSELS, 30-Nov-2016 — /EuropaWire/ — Migration remains one of the main concerns of EU citizens. Even if the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe has considerably dropped in 2016, the EU’s current migration strategy needs to be adapted to the realities our union is facing today.

“The migration crisis has confronted us in Europe with one of the toughest challenges we have faced. It has tested our beliefs and our unity, and it has raised new concerns. It has shown that no country can face this challenge alone.

When more than half of EU citizens are concerned about migration, it is time we come up with concrete solutions and actions to control the flow to Europe and to guarantee people’s security at home,” said EPP President Joseph Daul.

The European People’s Party (EPP) has always striven to respond to people’s concerns by proposing practical, sustainable solutions. Hence, the EPP is putting forward four key solutions to protect lives and control migration to Europe. We must do the following:

• Protect lives by helping refugees, fighting criminal trafficking networks, creating safe zones in Africa and the Middle East and promoting legal access to the EU through resettlement programmes;
• Control migration through establishing asylum centres and processing asylum requests outside the EU, taking into consideration EU Member States’ capacities;
• Secure EU borders by reinforcing border operations and raising awareness of the fact that rescue at sea does not entail access to the EU;
• Cooperate with third countries to address the root causes of forced migration and to manage and return irregular migrants.

“The way we handle migration today will remain a legacy for future generations. Our actions must be guided by our values: human dignity and solidarity combined with responsibility — and not fear and rejection,” continued the EPP President.

“Through our proposals, we want to make every EU citizen feel safe at home and to avoid lives of refugees being lost in the Mediterranean. We must do everything necessary to dismantle such criminal networks, which grow rich off of other people’s tragedies. For this, we must better secure our borders and control migration flows to Europe. We must take responsibility in helping to solve crises in our neighbourhoods, to create safe places for people fleeing wars and to assist communities in building their futures at home. Europe can no longer be only a spectator; Europe must become a player,” concluded the EPP President.

A concrete roadmap on migration was adopted by the EPP’s member parties and associations at its Political Assembly on 14 November in Brussels.

SOURCE: EPP

For more information

Siegfried Muresan,
Spokesman
  +32-22854147

Note to editors

The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 79 parties and partners from 41 countries, the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, 8 EU and 5 non-EU heads of state and government, 14 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.