Following today´s decision of the College of EU Commissioners on migration, the President of the S&D Group, Gianni Pittella, stated:
"After more than three years, the entire EU College of Commissioners finally admitted and implicitly put down in words the need to revise the Dublin regulation. Yes, the migration issue requires a European approach. Yes, the readmission policy must solely be carried out with formal European tools. And yes, legal channels for migrants must be set up, opening them up not only for high skilled workers. We expect that the proposed pilot projects with non-EU Countries will thus go beyond the restrictive Blue Card approach.
"However, despite the generally positive approach put forward by the Commission today, we must express our concern and disappointment about the very sensitive chapter on ´unaccompanied minors´. We cannot in any way accept the idea of minors´ detention, as the proposal of the commission envisages. On the contrary, we are fully convinced that a fast and simplified process should be ensured for unaccompanied minors.
"We now need to see Member States taking these recommendations seriously and by the next EU Council Summit we want to see concrete actions for their implementation."
