European Council (25-26 June 2015) in Brussels.&nbsp;Statements by MEPs

Brussels

statement

LAMBERTS, Philippe (Greens/EFA, BE)

KAMALL, Syed (ECR, UK)

meeting of the European Council

European Council meeting 25-26 June 2015 (T)

European Council 25-26 June 2015: MEPs statements

Exterior view of the European Council venue, (1 shot), Brussels, Belgium

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), (On the reform wishes of David Cameron) &ldquo;What we are saying to people is that it is not a British shopping list, you should look upon as a real opportunity for the EU. And sometimes people from other countries are coming up to me and say &lsquo;thank you so much&rsquo; because this is an opportunity for real reform. We talk about reform in the EU but we do nothing about it, David Cameron is helping us to focus our minds and hopefully we can achieve a reform not only for Britain but for the whole EU.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), (on defence) &ldquo;I think on what we have to focus on when it comes to defence is cooperation and coordination where we agree, not some sort of coalition forcing people into a European army. We got to get away from this silly idea and we got to get away from this idea that the EU competes with NATO. What we going to make sure is look at those countries that have a military capability and talk about how we can cooperate in a meaningful way.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Philippe LAMBERTS (Greens/EFA, BE), (On migration) &ldquo;Well, to put it in a simple way I do believe that the 28 Heads of State and governments are simply afraid of populist, extremist movements in their respective countries and therefore do as if it would be impossible or intolerable for Europeans to accept war refugees, which is what we are talking about. That even 40.000 war refugees in a continent, in an Union that has more than half a Billion people would be intolerable.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (French), Philippe LAMBERTS (Greens/EFA, BE), &ldquo;Well I have a doubt that this will produce anything conclusive and I understand that the Head of State and governments have already and want to kick down the road to December to start really talking about that. What I know is that, well he (Mr Cameron) cornered himself with his idea of referendum. Not that I&rsquo;m against referenda but frankly speaking he cornered himself and now he knows that his initial requests were totally impossible to agree by the other 27 Head of State and governments. Now he is coming with sort of protecting the city of London, which constant by the British policy makers. He wants to be able to limit the social rights of internal migrant workers, so detached workers that are going to the United Kingdom. He toned down quite a few of his demands. We will see what happens, my concern is that actually some people including Frans Timmermans at the European Commission will use the threat of BREXIT to make Europe even more ultra- Liberal than it is today. &ldquo;