Video Youtube: https://youtu.be/bozmpTqQdJo
Today, here in New York at the headquarters of the United Nations, I met the secretary general of the UN, Mr Antonio Guterres, the President of the General Assembly Mr Lajčák and the coordinator for counterterrorism Mr Voronkov. With the Secretary General we discussed the global compacts on migration and refugees. The EU is fully aligned with the principles of the United Nations as far as migration is concerned. But we need to engage more countries in our common effort because migration has taken a global dimension. It is not a European issue, it is a global issue. Our era will be qualified as the era of human mobility. So we have to put on board the international community. We also discussed security because security, as an issue, transcends borders; so it is important to engage more and more countries in our efforts to better address this phenomenon that is threatening the lives of our citizens and our social and political stability. We have to do more on that.
We exchanged some ideas with the leadership of the United Nations. As you know, the EU has taken a lead at the global level in addressing these issues and the results are there already in Europe. We are not where we were three years ago thanks to the fact that we have adopted a comprehensive and holistic migration policy. But it is not only that. We shouldn’t forget that there are still terrible situations in some parts of the world, for instance in Libya, in Syria. We have to provide these people with humanitarian support. IOM and UNHCR cooperate with us on that and we work very hard. The European Union is leading this campaign and this policy to provide [help to ] the ones who are in need of international protection and at the same time we work on resettlement, on returns and on relocation. This was the core of the discussions I had today with my good friend Secretary General Antonio Guterres, my former colleague Mr Lajčák and the coordinator for counter terrorism Mr Voronkov.