Honourable Members,
Dear Colleagues,
Let me first express my best wishes to you for this New Year and to the newly elected Bureau of this Committee.
I am glad that my good friend Claude was re-elected as our Chair and I am looking forward to continue working together with the Vice-Presidents and all of you.
I think that our discussion is very timely, we need to take stock of the progress achieved, to discuss our priorities and to respond to the most pressing issues.
Honourable Members,
We were all shocked by the living conditions of refugees in the extreme weather conditions across Europe.
This is why I could not be with you last week in the Plenary.
I was in Lesvos and held a series of meetings in Greece on the issue in order to improve the situation.
Let me be very open with you: the actual managing of the migratory crisis is not an easy task.
It requires the coordination and cooperation of many different stakeholders, in challenging and often changing conditions.
In the case of both Greece and Italy, and recently of Bulgaria, the Commission and the European Agencies have provided the necessary financial and operational support.
We need to ensure that the whole procedure, from reception to relocation or return of a migrant, is done under the right human conditions and is as quick as possible, in order to move people from their temporary shelters.
One point is certainly shared priority for you and me: Member States have to act fast, so that relocation becomes a success and a solidarity instrument in the EU.
I want to see more efforts being done, in particular for the relocation of unaccompanied minors.
Member States should also relocate from Italy and start accepting Eritreans, as foreseen in the relocation decisions.
Europol will assist Italy should additional checks be considered necessary by the Member States of relocation.
Europol will provide a secure communication channel and play a facilitator role during the security interviews, if needed.
The work on return and readmission was particularly relevant in 2016.
We engaged in a more coordinated, systematic and structured approach with the most important third countries of origin and transit;
We need to ensure that migration is fully part of our global relations with our third country partners.
We made some progress with Niger, Nigeria, Afghanistan and we need to further consolidate our approach.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency is also now operational in assisting Member States on return.
The first results are positive: since the entry into force of the new Regulation, the Agency has supported more return operations that in the whole year of 2015: 78 operations from October to January against 66 operations in 2015.
With the proposed revisions of the Eurodac Regulation and with the rules we have proposed for the Schengen Information System (SIS), we want to facilitate both the enforcement of return decisions and the identification of irregular migrants in view of their return.
But member States have also to ensure a better implementation of the return directive and use the flexibility it provides.
In the coming weeks, the Commission will take stock of the implementation of the Action Plan on Return of September 2015 update it in the light of new developments, to scale up the range of measures to be taken to enhance returns.
Now I would like to refer to our common key priorities for the future: the reform of the Common European Asylum System forward is one of them.
I know that this Parliament is already working hard on the file and I encourage you to build on the discussions of last year.
It is now important that you and the Council start negotiations on Eurodac and the EU Agency for Asylum.
We need to move forward on Dublin – I am sure that Ms Wikström agrees with me.
To continue benefiting from a Europe without internal borders, the Dublin system has to be clear, predictable and efficient – but also fair.
It has to be based on the principles of solidarity and responsibility.
These are also the principles I will remind Ministers on Thursday during the Informal Council in Malta.
The discussions on the other files of the package also have to advance, namely on the Procedure and Qualification draft regulations and on the draft Reception Conditions Directive.
The same on the external dimension, including discussions on the Union Resettlement Framework Regulation.
All these elements are interconnected, and we must advance on all if we want to deal with the phenomenon of migration in a comprehensive way.
That is why I also count on you to make progress on the Blue Card Directive.
The Commission has made an ambitious proposal to make the EU more attractive for the highly-skilled.
I understand that the EMPLO committee has competence for some of the articles, I suggest that we organise a joint debate where I can come and discuss this key file with you.
As we said many times, we should not mix migration and security issues. There is however a link that connects the two: our border management.
Solid and secure borders serve the dual function of efficient border management and ensure that threats are not allowed to cross into our Schengen area of free movement.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency is now operational and effective, with a strengthened rapid reaction capacity.
The cornerstones of the new preventive mechanism for detecting and addressing Member States’ vulnerabilities have been set up.
We count on Member States to provide some border guards, experts and equipment which are still missing.
The Commission has also adopted a model status agreement paving the way for better operational cooperation with priority third countries.
The Commission will propose to the Council to start the negotiations immediately to conclude such agreements with Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Another milestone to improve our security, the amendment of the Schengen Borders Code, to allow systematic checks on everyone at our external borders and stop the possibility of returning foreign terrorist fighters, is about to be formally adopted.
In parallel, our goal and commitment remains to gradually phase out the current temporary border controls and return to a normal functioning of the Schengen area as soon as possible.
We have been monitoring the situation very closely, and I will discuss this tomorrow with the other members of the Commission at the College.
The current controls are exceptional, in exceptional circumstances and have to stay exceptional when justified.
What matters, is that they do not become the norm. Schengen is our greatest achievement, and we must do everything to safeguard it.
Mobility in the EU, through Schengen and the right of free movement, is what EU citizens cherish enormously, and we must listen to them, while also guaranteeing their safety.
As I said in the Plenary, I also welcome the agreement found on the revision of the suspension mechanism.
This also opens the way for visa liberalisation for citizens of Georgia and Ukraine.
I encourage the Council to follow the Parliament in accelerating their adoption.
Other key elements to improve mobility in a safe environment are the proposals on Entry-Exit and ETIAS. I hope that they will be adopted quickly in 2017.
In parallel legislation already in place needs to be properly implemented –and I am referring here to PNR.
Let me now say some words on our work on security:
In just one year, with your contribution, a lot has been achieved.
We made progress in collective capacity to identify terrorists and in preventing their travels, in fighting against terrorism financing and the trafficking of arms and use of explosives, and in preventing radicalisation.
However, the tragic events of the last year prove that we still have a long way to go.
There is no zero security risk but we can do more to prevent radicalisation.
We have also to do more for the timely and efficient exchange of information.
This is why we prioritize the interoperability of our information systems.
But to do all this in an efficient manner, all of us, and first of all, our Member States, need to understand that they cannot face any security threat alone.
That we are all together in this: We face the same challenges and the same criminals.
Only a genuine and effective Security Union in Europe will truly address the threat of terrorism.
Once more therefore, the help and political support of this House is needed.
Honourable Members,
2017 will be a crucial year to make progress on migration and security.
Europe must show progress, must show how our action replies to citizens’ preoccupations and that we can work together in this direction.
Allow me to add, that the historical opportunity goes beyond the migratory and security challenges.
If we don’t prove we are united it is Europe’s same existence that we put in question.
I am coming from a visit to Auschwitz yesterday.
Through the Europe for Citizens programme we have financed the maintenance and conservation of Auschwitz.
As Commissioner for Citizenship I felt it was my duty to visit, also in the context of the upcoming International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
I came back both worried and determined. Worried because I see the signals that prove that Europeans have not studied their own History.
That we risk going back to a past which was marked by the rise of nationalism and racism, by war, by hatred.
All has started with the normalisation of populistic argumentation.
I am very worried where Europe is headed to today. But I am also determined.
Determined not to allow our citizens to forget. Determined to turn this crisis into an opportunity for Europe to become a real Union.
Let’s work together on this.
More than the progress on the adoption and the implementation of EU legislation, we also need to debate with our citizens and communicate our common work to demonstrate the EU’s added value.
And we need to talk openly about the past, present and future, about what is happening to our societies and what the concerns and worries of our citizens are.
No one has the right to remain silent against the return of populism and nationalism.
Because we all know that “evil prevails when good men do nothing”
Thank you and I am looking forward to our discussion.