Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-025"
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"en.20080617.4.2-025"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is clear that today we are debating a very delicate issue – one on which Parliament is divided – and at the same time a very sensitive, if not tragic issue, since it can potentially have fundamental consequences for the conditions of existence and even the lives of those seeking to come to Europe, even if illegally, in search of a future that their country cannot offer them.
I will not repeat what other speakers have already said, but I would like to highlight four particular points.
The first is aimed at my colleague and friend, Giusto Catania. It is unjust, Giusto, to speak of Fortress Europe as if it let no one on to its territory and as if it were insensitive to the poverty of millions of people. According to official figures, there are now between 1.5 and 2 million immigrants entering the European Union legally each year, either through regularisation, family reunification or recognition as political refugees. It means that if we continue at this rate for the next 30 years – and I have no objection to that – between 45 and 60 million people will enter the European Union legally.
Secondly, this directive, despite its inadequacies, and I accept that it has some, is not a regulation. In fact, it is practically a framework directive, which leaves each Member State room for manoeuvre in its assessments – apart from the minimum standards it fixes and the limits it sets that cannot be exceeded – and it offers each Member State the possibility of having legislation that corresponds to what the democratic majority in these countries decides. The directive also states that the Commission should report to Parliament every three years and that the Commission may propose amendments. Read the directive!
Thirdly, and I am talking to some of my socialist friends here, we need to stop broadcasting major untruths. The directive does not establish detention as the rule. Article 14 of the directive provides for the possibility of detention in specific cases and it also puts extremely tight legal controls on them. Just read Article 14, paragraph 2. Saying that detention is the rule, and that it is imposed on the Member States, is simply not true. You should not stir up public opinion. There are enough real problems, without coming up with problems that simply do not exist.
My fourth and last comment, Mr President, is a message for Mr Weber and the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats. Despite all the deficiencies, which I acknowledge are there, I will be voting for the directive. However, I would ask the PPE-DE Group not to try to use procedural manoeuvres to settle issues that are in essence political and that could divide Parliament. Whichever way Parliament votes this morning, I think it should be respected."@en1
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