Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on EU common list of safe countries in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Sylvie GUILLAUME, Rapporteur, Rachida DATI (EPP, FR), Gérard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), Martina ANDERSON (GUE/NGL, UK) and Birgit SIPPEL (S&D, DE)

Brussels

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

ANDERSON, Martina (GUE/NGL, UK)

fight against terrorism (T)

SIPPEL, Birgit (S&D, DE)

DATI, Rachida (EPP, FR)

GUILLAUME, Sylvie (S&D, FR)

DEPREZ, Gérard (ALDE, BE)

EU common list of safe countries: extracts from the report by Sylvie GUILLAUME (S&D,FR)

Exterior shot of the European Parliament in Brussels

SOUNDBITE (French), Sylvie GUILLAUME (S&amp;D, FR), Rapporteur, "First of all, a safe country of origin is one that has a reliable democratic system, a country where there is no persecution, or torture or inhuman or degrading punishment, where there is no violence or armed conflict".

SOUNDBITE (French), Sylvie GUILLAUME, Rapporteur, "At this point there are national lists of safe countries of origin in 12 countries of the European Union, which shows very disparate practices, sometimes incoherent, when it comes to the countries included on the list, that go from 1 to 16 countries or also when it comes to the concept itself".

SOUNDBITE (French), Rachida DATI (EPP, FR), "I welcome the proposal of Jean-Claude JUNCKER of creating a common European list of safe countries of origin. It is true that the pertinence and the need for this list is not controversial, what is controversial is the criteria to establish this list".

SOUNDBITE (French), G&#233;rard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), "Once that a safe country of origin is on the list, there are consequences to it and we try to enforce them by accelerating the procedure. But we think that this acceleration requires a certain number of amendments to the current mechanism".

SOUNDBITE (English), Martina ANDERSON (GUE/NGL, UK), "When you look at what is used to define wether the country is on a safe list or not and they talk about no armed conflict, no threat of violence and yet we've heard from Erdogan a few weeks ago or a few months ago, where he said that Turkey was ending the peace process. So I just cannot understand how a country like that can be presented to us, as MEPs, to be designated as safe, given some of the commentary that he has made and what is happening with the Kurds".

SOUNDBITE (English), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), "Let me say only one sentence to Mr. JUNCKER. He said that all these countries claearly, without any doubt, are safe countries of origin because they are candidates for the accession to the European Union. Sorry, they are candidates, that doesn't mean that they all fulfill the Copenhaguen criteria. If they would fulfill them - and that's the argument of Mr. JUNCKER -, they could become members of the European Union already tomorrow".