Ahead of a Commission consultation process on family reunification of third-country nationals living in the EU, GUE/NGL MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides stressed the threats to "fundamental consecrated rights" to MEPs in Strasbourg this morning.

"It is essential for us to see the debate started by the Commission as an opportunity to consolidate this right and not the opposite as some are already doing."

"Family reunification only applies to a small minority of migration and when the Commission repeatedly asks member states for figures on fraud, they're not forthcoming," he explained.

"Let's have the guts to apply equal treatment, the kind we would like for ourselves and see things in their true dimension." MEP Triantaphyllides concluded.

Dutch GUE/NGL MEP Dennis de Jong said that he had recently asked the Dutch minister for immigration and asylum whether he had any compassion for people in love and was told that "happiness isn't a criteria." He asked "don't Christian Democrats say that the family is the cornerstone of society?"

Europe should not make it impossible for people to live in a member state, he said. "Can't the Commission give a signal that it supports these values?"

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20   

David Lundy +32 485 50 58 12

gabrielle.kavanagh@europarl.europa.eu  

david.lundy@europarl.europa.eu

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu