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A new cross-party migration policy group has established since the parties successfully temporarily postponed the EU Parliament vote on a binding migration pact.
Recently, a press conference was held in the EU Parliament where ten migration-critical parties participated. They promise an extensive campaign in their home countries to muster a popular resistance against the new migration pact produced by the EU Parliament.
– We accomplished together what we could not do individually. We tabled rules regarding the entire migration pact, stated MEP Charlie Weimers (SD/ECR) as he opened the press conference.
The group will wright concrete proposals which can be introduced in future negotiations.
First victory
– We will improve cooperation between parties in different countries that oppose the open border migration pact, Weimers continued.
The Swedish Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M/EPP) will have a key role because Sweden holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union this spring and will therefore lead the negotiations when the EU countries in the Council of Ministers must agree on their position on the migration issues.
And Charlie Weimers could announce a first victory for the conservative opposition to the migration pact. The Swedish migration minister has stated on public television that “I can guarantee that it will not be the agreement reached by the European Parliament”.
– So we are quite hopeful to be able to move this in the right direction, says Weimers at the press conference.
Resistance to forced distribution
The EU Parliament’s migration pact talks about “solidarity” between member states to help each other when the pressure of new migrants is severe. This is primarily to be done voluntarily, but in the end there may be mandatory redistribution between the countries.
Conservatives perceive the world situation as one that will quickly go from voluntariness to coercion. The EU Commission will then force the member states to accept asylum seekers.
– We want to stop that. We want to make sure that at a later stage in the EU court it cannot be interpreted as being possible, says Weimers to TT and other Swedish journalists present at the press conference.
Sharp criticism
The parties are united in their criticism of a growing European Union that centralizes more and more power to Brussels.
– The European elite always come up with the same solution: more EU, more bureaucracy, more centralization and just less democratic power, said Tom Vandendriessche from the Belgian Vlaams Belang (ID).
– We have a majority in this parliament that obviously does not care about our rights. My call to everyone is to replace them before they replace us, says Cristian Terhes of the Romanian Christian Democratic National Peasant Party (ECR).
Broad cooperation between political parties
It is an unusually broad collection of members of the European Parliament and their parties that are included in the new cross-party migration policy group.
The parties participating in this collaboration bring together 78 out of 705 members of the European Parliament.
Among the ten representatives at the press conference are two parties that hold government power in their home countries, Law and Justice (ECR) in Poland and Fidesz (NI) in Hungary. And a third party that is part of government cooperation, Sweden Democrats (ECR).
Also present at the pre-meeting were the Italian governing parties Fratelli d’Italia (ECR) and Lega (ID).
Other parties present were Rassemblement National (ID) from France, Alternative für Deutschland (ID) from Germany, Vox (ECR) from Spain, Vlaams Belang (ID) from Belgium, JA21 (ECR) from the Netherlands, VMRO (ECR) from Bulgaria and PNCTD from Romania (ECR). Invited to the pre-meeting was also Dansk Folkeparti (ID) from Denmark och The true Finns (ECR) from Finland.