EPP Suggests to EU Council Five Ways to Addressing Refugee Crisis

In a press release to Novinite, the chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, suggested five ways in which the European Council could show responsibility in addressing the refugee crisis.

Weber assured that his partly clearly distinguishes between people fleeing war, terror or political persecution and those who arrive to Europe in search of a better life .

According to EPP, the former deserve protection, while the latter, whose lives are not in danger, cannot remain in Europe.

Weber dismissed the calls of the Left and Greens for opening the labour markets of Europe to economic migrants as both illusory and wrong.

In this respect, the EPP places the priority on helping the millions of unemployed youth in Europe to find jobs rather than trying to solve the problems of Africa and other regions through massive economic migration.

The EPP highlighted the need for cooperation in Europe in solving the refugee crisis as Germany was not in the position to solve it alone.

Weber calls on the EU heads of states or government, who are scheduled to convene later on Wednesday at an extraordinary meeting of the European Council, to finally show responsibility by focusing on the following five points.

The first priority should be on stabilising the crisis regions, especially in the Middle East and considerably increasing humanitarian aid to refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria.

This would require the securing of EUR 1 B package for the neighbouring countries of Syria and an additional EUR 1 B in humanitarian aid from EU instruments.

EPP suggested that member states should also agree on a joint strategy for other crisis regions such as Afghanistan and some African regions.

Secondly, Europe...