Sergei Stanishev, PES President said:
“The human rights of refugees trying to reach safety in Europe must be respected. Both in the EU and in Turkey. We must make sure that the EU-Turkey ‘deal’, and the process of sending irregular migrants back to Turkey which will follow, in no way call into question their rights or security, and is compliant with EU and international law. Each person fleeing war and persecution and seeking asylum has their own reason for doing so and each case should be treated individually.
At the same time European values should not be compromised and the Socialists and Democrats are doing their best to ensure peace and prosperity throughout Europe.
Greece is at the very front line of this crisis. An issue of such immense scale cannot possibly be dealt with by one country. We stand in solidarity with Greece and call for Member States to show humanity, and share the responsibility to deal with the refugee crisis.”
In this context the PES Prime Ministers were joined today by the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras and the Leader of PASOK Fofi Gennimata.
Sergei Stanishev, added:
“While we progressives have long been open to advancing talks on Turkish accession to the EU, we do not believe it should become entangled in the refugee crisis. We want to progress with talks on Turkish accession, in line with our values and ensuring the respect of media freedom, human rights, an independent judiciary and other criteria which all countries wishing to join the EU must meet.”
The meeting was attended by:
Sergei Stanishev PES President
François Hollande, President, France
Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister, Italy
Werner Faymann, Chancellor, Austria
Stefan Lofven, Prime Minister, Sweden
Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister, Malta
Antonio Costa, Prime Minister Portugal
Bohuslav Sobotka, Prime Minister, Czech Republic
Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister Greece (observer)
Jean Asselborn, Europe Minister, Luxembourg
Diederik Samsom, Leader PvdA, Netherlands
Fofi Gennimata, Leader, PASOK Greece
Liviu Dragnea, Leader PSD, Romania
Pedro Sanchez, Leader PSOE, Spain
Frans Timmermans, First Vice President, EU Commission
Federica Mogherini, High Representative, EU Commission
Maros Sefcovic, EU Commission
Pierre Moscovici, EU Commission
Corina Cretu, EU Commission
Gianni Pittella, President, S&D Group
Martin Schulz, President, European Parliament
