Pre-EU Summit debate on migration, defense unsettled at European Parliament

Ahead of a meeting of European Union (EU) heads of state and government in Brussels this Thursday, European Commission and European Council representatives travelled here Wednesday to try to convince Members of European Parliament (MEP) of the directions being taken by the European executive in terms of international policy and migration, without much success.

In front of the Strasbourg hemicycle, Ivan Korcok, Slovakia's state secretary for European affairs, said the EU must strengthen its internal and external security and increase its cooperation with NATO.

Concerning the migrant and refugee crisis, he defended the EU's collaboration with Turkish authorities, while underlining that it was also necessary to work with African countries in order to attack the roots of the migratory flows.

President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, put the accent on "the progress made in 2016 in the fight against the migratory crisis." The Luxembourger called for more efficient support to Italy, a front line nation, confronted with massive arrivals of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in 2015.

Juncker also questioned the member states regarding "the necessity to double external investment funds by 44 billion euros" with the objective to fight the deep causes of the migration crisis, the worst the European continent has known since the end of the Second World War.

Juncker also spoke in favor of the creation of a European defense union in order to assure stronger protection for European citizens, especially faced with the threat of terrorism.

He pleaded for the pooling of military equipment, for the harmonization of norms and for the establishment of a common base for research and industry thanks to a richly endowed European defense fund.

In the ranks of the political right, the head of the European People's Party group (EPP), German MEP Manfred Weber called on the European Council to freeze accession talks with Turkey as the country is "moving in the wrong direction."

The president of the Socialists and Democrats group (S&D), Italian MEP Gianni Pitella, said EU priority initiatives were stagnating in the European Council and "each delay has direct consequences for people's lives."

Speaking for the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), British MEP Syed Kamall chastised the 45 European summits since 2010 as "so many missed opportunities to tackle security, defense and unemployment issues." "People are angry that we have become out of touch with their legitimate concerns," he judged, advising that the EU learn from local and national projects.

In the ranks of the far right, speaking for the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), Italian MEP Eleonora Forenza attacked the so-called "Migration Compact."

"It proposes cooperation with transit countries in exchange for enhanced border control and is seen as a success: how is this possible if even the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) talks about significant violations of human rights?" she demanded.

In the name of the Greens, German MEP Ska Keller criticized those EU member states who had not relocated and resettled migrants as was agreed the year prior. She pleaded, as well, for "pooling and sharing" in regards to European defense, rather than "nurturing the defense industry."

Dutch MEP Marcel De Graaff (Europe of Nations and Freedom) affirmed that Europe needed a "structural solution" in order to resolve the migratory question, which included closing borders "properly" and sending illegal migrants back to their countries of origin, given that, according to him, they "pose a threat" to Europeans. Endit