The centre-right European People's Party has announced plans to strike a series of deals with countries outside the EU to deport irregular migrants. Its aim is to stop the rise of the far right in Europe.
“We want to implement the concept of safe third countries. Anyone seeking asylum in the EU can be transferred to a safe third country and undergo the asylum procedure there,” the party's final version of the manifesto reads.
The PPE thus defends a migration policy similar to that of the United Kingdom, which aims to deport illegal immigrants arriving in the UK to Rwanda.
The European party, however, is trying to distance itself from the controversial UK bill, which has been criticized as inconsistent with human rights obligations and in breach of international law.
“The criteria for safe havens must comply with the fundamental obligations of the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights,” the EPP insists.
The party also proposes that “the EU should agree on quotas of persons in need of protection through annual humanitarian quotas of vulnerable individuals”.
The plan, which proposes a fundamental change in European asylum law, will be discussed at the EPP's annual conference in Bucharest this Wednesday.
The PPE supports Van der Leyen's re-election
The European People's Party is backing Ursula van der Leyen for a second term as President of the European Commission.
Van der Leyen will be formally elected as the EPP's “Spitzenkandidat” (“primary candidate”) for the post of European Commission president in a vote during a pre-European election congress in Romania on Thursday.
However, tightening immigration policies could pose a challenge to the head of the European Commission and create external political risks for van der Leyen, who must represent the interests of the entire constituency, not just one political group, in parliament.
“I don't think she is [Von der Leyen] “There will be some difficulty between member states, but the parliamentary vote is another game,” a diplomat was quoted as saying. Guardian.
Ursula von der Leyen was not the leader of the EPP list in 2019, but this time she was contested and supported by her German party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is part of this political family.
As the first female President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen was approved by the European Parliament in November 2019, with 461 votes in favor, 157 votes against and 89 abstentions. MEPs in office are another).
Currently, the European Parliament is made up of seven political groups, of which the EPP is the largest, followed by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), a group of the Party of European Socialists (PES).
European elections will be held in three months in the 27 countries that make up the European Union, and will determine not only the composition of the European Parliament, but also the path to the presidency of the Commission.
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