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Leading candidate of the European Socialist Party Nicholas SchmidtIn an interview with European Events, he said Germany could outsource asylum procedures to countries outside the EU if they were “under European control”, while he criticised European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for not involving all commissioners in the EU’s third country migration pact.
In mid-May, 15 EU countries sent a letter to the European Commission, asking for the outsourcing of asylum procedures to neighboring countries. One of the leaders of this initiative is the Socialist-led Danish government, which has a harder line on immigration than other members of the Party of European Socialists (PES).
The PES manifesto explicitly states that the party “opposes any form of externalisation of EU borders”.
But when asked whether this dichotomy could cause problems for the Socialist family, Schmidt replied: He is the leading candidate of the Party of European Socialists in June’s EU elections and the current commissioner for employment and social rights.
“If externalisation means that sometimes you can organise the asylum process but under our control, under European control, before people enter the EU, this is something that can be discussed.”
“This must then be done under the mandate of the Union and with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,” he added, stressing that any externalization must be in accordance with human rights and the United Nations Refugee Convention.
The EU border control agency Frontex is currently responsible for handling immigration matters. cannot Operating outside the territory of the European Union.
Apart from Just approved In addition to the asylum and migration pact, the EU has also reached separate agreements with Tunisia, Mauritania and Egypt to help reduce the influx of migrants into Europe, but they do not externalize the asylum process.
These transactions Highly controversialThe European Commission and the EU Socialists themselves believe that these countries do not guarantee respect for human rights. Schmidt pointed out that the committee of 27 commissioners did not discuss these agreements properly.
Von der Leyen to ‘minimize’ university involvement
While a commission spokesman argued that the immigration deal was decided “in accordance with procedure,” Schmidt said commissioners were notified at the last minute on Friday afternoon, “without it being discussed even at the civil service level, and you had one hour to say whether you agreed or not.”
“You can always use the program as you wish, limit it to the bare minimum, and this is what it’s for,” he said.
Schmidt believes that von der Leyen’s approach to the commission “is not the management style that I approve of and promote, because we are obviously a geopolitical commission, but we are not a political commission.”
He added that important topics such as the migration agreement should be discussed in depth at the political level by the Committee of Commissioners.
“That’s what I’d like to change, I’d get the college more involved,” he said.
Von der Leyen Under attack Most recently, she was involved in the appointment of a colleague from the European People’s Party to the senior position of Commission Special Envoy for SMEs.
Thierry Breton, the commissioner in charge of the matter, said she bypassed him.
Likewise, Schmidt told European Events: “Now everything is finally done at the civil service level”, with no in-depth discussions of key policy proposals taking place among the 27 commissioners.
“I’m an adult. I’m a politician. I’m not just going to sit there and say, yeah, yeah, great, well done.”
In contrast, Eric Mamer, the European Commission’s chief spokesman, said on May 27 that “this is a very, very cooperative Commission.” debate The President has involved all Commissioners in the decision-making process through existing procedures.
He said on the immigration deal, all the commissioners’ cabinet members were invited to frequent meetings to discuss the deal.
(Editing by Aurélie Pugnet/Sarantis Michalopoulos/Zoran Radosavljevic)
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