Photo: pirati.cz
BRUSSELS, 10 April 2024 - Pirate MEPs today failed to support most of the ten pieces of legislation voted on, also known as the asylum and migration pact. They said the package as a whole does not provide an effective solution to problems concerning the security of EU citizens, while threatening to lower human rights standards for people fleeing war, including children.
The Pirates opposed major proposals such as the Management of Migration and Asylum, the response to crisis and unforeseen situations, the Eurodac system and the Regulation on screening.
"We saw the migration package as an opportunity to finally address the fundamental problems Europe is facing in its efforts to manage migration. However, we were not convinced by the final document. We cannot support the package in its current form because we do not believe that it can bring about major changes for visible problems, and we note that it lowers humanistic standards. The former is in itself a reason for us to reject it; the latter is unacceptable to us," explains MEP Markéta Gregorová.
One of the problems with the pact, according to the Pirates, is the poor revision of the Dublin system. The Pact, in their view, worsens the principle of first entry and continues to exacerbate the unbearable pressure on first-entry countries.
"The legislation worsens the attitude towards biometric data of new arrivals, which is now to be taken even for children. There is also a new risk that this sensitive data will be sent to the country of origin, i.e. mostly into the hands of authoritarian regimes. A major stumbling block is the revision of the so-called Dublin system. The pact offers only cosmetic changes to this problematic system, where, until now, only the country of first entry has processed the application. However, the revision does not offer a solution, just another bureaucratic burden. It continues to increase the unbearable burden on these states, which will therefore either not be able to screen applicants thoroughly or will be forced to create camps with unacceptable humanitarian conditions where they will have to detain new arrivals for months," says Gregorová.
The Pirates thus ended up supporting only the resettlement of arrivals in need of international protection, and regulation that helps asylum seekers to start working in the country where they were placed. This measure, according to the Pirates, will strengthen their self-sufficiency and thus improve their prospects for successful integration, which should be helped by better access to language and civic education courses and vocational training.
MEP Markéta Gregorová and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský recently presented their positions on migration at a joint meeting with journalists.
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