Today, the European Parliament voted on key files in the Migration Pact. This comes after the far right political groups objected to the mandates voted by the justice and home affairs committee at the end of March.

At the committee vote, there was a clear majority to start negotiations with the Council as soon as possible, with a view to finding an agreement before the end of the mandate in 2024. The plenary voted on challenging the committee decision to start trilogue negotiations on the screening regulation, the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation and the crisis regulation.

With an influential role across the legislative files, the S&D Group fought for an agreement based on solidarity both towards those seeking protection and between member states; one that protects the right to asylum and that ensures each member state takes its fair share of responsibility. 

Instead of celebrating their support for proposals like protecting the right to asylum, the EPP Group is copying from the far right playbook by turning migration into a debate about building walls.

Birgit Sippel, LIBE spokesperson and Parliament’s rapporteur on screening, said:

 “The Migration Pact is about solutions, while talking about building walls is a distraction. Today’s vote is about serious legislation that will mean long-term solutions and binding solidarity measures. The vote orchestrated by the EPP yesterday, to use EU money to build walls, was a distraction. 

“The EPP is at real risk of losing control of its policies and is running blind into an alliance with the far right. By constantly pandering to far-right fearmongering over migration, Manfred Weber is playing a dangerous game. Weber should get himself out of the pockets of the likes of Meloni and get back to responsible solutions that have the support of a pro-European majority.”

 Juan Fernando López Aguilar, LIBE Chair and Parliament’s rapporteur on the crisis regulation, said:

“We worked hard to find a solid majority among the political groups at the committee stage and we did that again today. By challenging the committee’s mandate, the Conservatives and Reformists, that includes the ruling party of the Italian government, show they are not serious about solutions. 

“The Migration Pact includes the tools to move away from ad-hoc crisis responses and instead put in place a permanent and sustainable procedure that governments can rely on. The Pact creates a system in which solidarity is obligatory and means relocation after rescue and salvage operations. Populist emergency decrees are no way to deal with migration in an orderly way. Nationalist solutions are not the answer to pan-European challenges.”