European Parliament’s biggest faction proposes to build walls against migrants

The biggest faction of the European Parliament - the European People's Party (EPP) has warned of a new migration crisis looming in Europe.

“It proposed to strengthen the EU external borders and even build walls there at the EU expense,” Interfax reports.

“If necessary, the construction of fences on our external borders should be financed through the EU funds,” EPP President Manfred Weber said.

“Fences are always a last resort, but we need them when smugglers try to circumvent European laws,” he stressed, presenting a document containing proposals for renewing EU policy on asylum and migration prepared by the faction to journalists,” he added.

“We need a European policy protecting borders. We must distinguish between [political] refugees and economic migrants and effectively return all those who do not need international protection," Weber said.

Other members of the faction noted the need to counter the attempts of some countries bordering the EU to use migrants for their political purposes, as well as the need to adopt a code of conduct for NGOs performing search and rescue missions at sea.

The EPP has been warning for several months that the EU is heading towards a new migration crisis. Almost 330,000 people illegally crossed the EU external borders in 2022. This is the highest figure since 2016, which was the year of the migration crisis. However, European asylum policy is still stuck in 2016.

Currently, the EU has 600,000 asylum applications. The acceptance rate is less than 40 per cent, showing that nearly two-thirds of asylum seekers do not need international protection.

The debates on EU migration policy are being held at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on February 1. EU heads of state and government will meet in Brussels next week for a special summit to work out viable solutions in asylum and migration.