Dear all,
I come here to speak before you at the peak of the refugee crisis.
I want to give you an understanding of the bigger picture of what we are facing.
But before I give you the numbers and the facts, let me share with you my personal thoughts.
More than the economic crisis, this refugee crisis is challenging the very fundament of our union: our solidarity.
Many decisions and agreements have taken place, most often at the initiative of the Commission, and yes, we have seen improvements, but I also see some developments which for me are not very European.
And these developments tell me that we are not there yet.
What many European but also other countries in the international community don’t understand enough is that this is a global issue, and that we can only address it together – not against each other.
Migration will be the defining element of the 21st century – even more so than of the 20th century.
We cannot stop migration, but we have to become better at managing it, to the benefit of the sending, transit and receiving communities.
But also to the benefit of migrants themselves.
Let us not forget that we are talking about people.
This first map shows: the migration flows have been enormous in 2015.
Over 150,000 migrants entered Italy; most of them crossed the Mediterranean sea from North Africa.
Nearly 900,000 migrants entered Greece via Turkey by boat to the Greek islands.
Many of them continued to northern Europe via the Western Balkans route.
As you can see, compared to previous years, Greece has experienced a huge increase of irregular arrivals.
This is primarily due to the deterioration of the situation in Syria.
But we also know that in the last few days arrivals in Italy from Libya are increasing again.
Numbers can change and fluctuate easily.
Following the number of arrivals, the number of asylum applications in Europe has also surged.
As you can see, in 2015, the number of asylum applications has doubled compared to 2014, and tripled compared to 2013.
Almost 1.4 million applications were lodged in the EU last year.
As a result of the huge migration flows, many Schengen countries temporarily reintroduced border controls.
7 Schengen countries continue to have certain border controls in place.
Important to emphasise that these controls are temporary and exceptional.
In the meantime, the Commission has taken a number of concrete actions to manage the situation and to offer European solutions.
First of all, we significantly increased the financial and human resources of the Frontex- led operations in the Mediterranean sea.
In Italy, thanks to joint operation Triton, over 150,000 migrants were rescued in 2015.
In Greece, thanks to Joint Operation Poseidon, over 100,000 migrants were rescued.
In the framework of the European Agenda on Migration, we also decided to set up 11 so-called “hotspots”
in Italy and Greece, in order to be able to swiftly identify those who are truly in need of protection from those who are not.
From the 11 identified hotspot locations, 4 are currently operational in Italy and 4 in Greece.
Thanks to the work being done at the hotspots, the number of fingerprinted migrants
that entered Italy and Greece in recent months has increased significantly.
We have put in place the so-called ‘relocation’ scheme since September 2015, in order to relocate – mainly from Greece and Italy –160,000 refugees to other EU Member States in the next 2 years.
So far, Member States have relocated just over 1000 refugees from Greece and Italy.
Unfortunately, there are still some Member States which have not relocated a single refugee.
I hope that the situation will change in the coming weeks.
This is urgent in the context of the humanitarian situation in Greece.
We also put in place in September the so-called ‘resettlement’ scheme, in order to resettle from third countries that currently host a large number of refugees to EU Member States over 22,000 refugees.
Since September 2015, more than 4500 have been resettled – but roughly 18000 still remain.
This is what I called for at the UNHCR conference on Wednesday in Geneva.
An in addition, 54,000 Syrian refugees will be resettled from Turkey to EU Member States under the Turkey agreement (this number will come from the reserve from the 160,000 relocation places).
The Commission has provided significant funding to EU Member States to deal with the crisis, including emergency assistance.
Under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the Commission has allocated 2.58 billion euros until 2020.
Under the Internal Security Fund, the Commission has allocated 2.2 billion euros until 2020.
The EU is also providing significant funds to third countries, which are hosting a large number of refugees.
The biggest part of these funds – 6 billion euros – have been allocated to the ‘Refugee facility for Turkey’, as agreed in the last European Council.
A first 95 million euros has already been disbursed to support concrete projects on the ground:
55 million for schools and 40 million in humanitarian aid for the World Food Programme.
So, dear friends, the work of the European Commission has gone a long way since the start of the migration crisis last year.
Starting from the 10 point plan in April 2015, to the European Agenda on Migration, to the first proposals on relocation and resettlement, which were finalised in September 2015, the hotspots, the assistance for third countries,
the EU-Turkey Action plan, the coordination with the Western Balkan countries, the proposal to set up a European Border and Coast Guard, the back-to-back Summits and European Council meetings to move things forward late last year,
and early this year, the proposed a Roadmap for restoring fully the functioning of the Schengen system by the end of the year, and just two weeks ago the EU-Turkey agreement to stop irregular migration from Turkey and break the business model of smugglers while opening legal and safe channels through resettlement.
So, in order to move forward on all fronts, we will need to do more on:
Relocation:
Member States need to step up their efforts.
They need to relocate from Greece and Italy an average of 6,000 refugees per week in order to meet the agreed target.
Resettlement:
In view of the recent EU-Turkey agreement, Member States will also have to step-up their efforts to resettle more Syrian refugees from Turkey to their respective countries.
Hotspots:
All of them must become full operational as soon as possible.
Here in Greece, thanks to the efforts of the Greek authorities, I trust that the hotspot in Kos will also become operational soon.
Return:
We need to use all means possible to ensure the swift return of those who do not have the right to stay in Europe.
We need to be clear and decisive.
Smuggling:
We will continue our efforts to crack down on smuggling.
The recent agreement with Turkey is an important step for our overall efforts.
We will also revise existing legislation later this year.
But our work doesn’t stop here.
We need to think about the big picture, and start addressing the medium and long-term challenges too.
That is why we will also:
• Reform the Dublin System and make significant improvements in the Common European Asylum System.
• Enhance legal migration avenues and support integration efforts
• Use better technologies to improve border controls
• Use EU funds for targeted actions that will improve our migration policy.
Thank you.