Talking Europe hosts one of the EU Commission’s vice-presidents, Margaritis Schinas, who is in charge of overseeing the promotion of the European Way of Life. That includes fighting anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination in various forms. Schinas also coordinates the Commission’s work on the Migration and Asylum Pact, which is entering a critical period in negotiations between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. Schinas tells Armen Georgian he is optimistic that the Pact will be completed before the EU elections next June, and that this will be a key part of the legacy of Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission.
We start with the shock win by the far right in the Dutch elections – something that is linked to voters’ concerns and fears about migration and immigration. Schinas is cautious in his reaction.
“Twenty-five percent of Dutch voters voted for Geert Wilders, but 75 percent didn’t,” he comments. “So when the government will be formed, the first thing that would be quite interesting to see is whether all this hate rhetoric that shaped his campaign will be translated into a government programme. We don’t know that yet. So I would very much like to give the next government a chance, to see whether it will reflect this hate speech or not. In any case, the European model of society is fully incompatible with any form of discrimination or hate.”
Schinas sounds an optimistic note about rounding off the negotiations to adopt a Europe-wide Pact on Migration and Asylum.
“Everything that we do not like about migration in Europe is the direct consequence of the fact that we do not have a European migration and asylum policy,” Schinas says. “We have tried for many years in the past to establish this regulatory framework. And let’s face it, Europe failed. So now, after decades of failures, we have a historic opportunity to get it right. Our proposals for an EU pact for migration and asylum are now being finalised through inter-institutional trilogue. We have made huge progress. We do still have a pending issue on our proposal for more expedited returns [to third countries], which we think is an important component of the overall policy.”
Asked about the timeframe, Schinas says: “I’m confident we are getting there and this will be one of the main elements of the overall legacy of the von der Leyen Commission, before Europeans go to vote next June in the European elections.”
Another important related component is to offer would-be migrants legal pathways into the European Union. Schinas has just unveiled plans for a new platform that will match individual skills with skills shortages in the EU.
“This is the first ever European system,” Schinas affirms. “It’s a platform that would allow us to publish vacant positions in our member states, identified with the help of the European Employers Association, in key areas that are vital to the competitiveness of the European economy – green digital transition, agriculture, tourism, hospitality, health care. And then the platform would allow for matches from third-country jobseekers. The system will be a voluntary system that will notify [and ask] the member state in question whether they would be interested in issuing working visas for these people to come over,” he explains.
We also turn our attention to the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the EU, in the light of Israel’s devastating military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which Tel Aviv launched in response to the massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7. Does the spike in anti-Semitism mean that the EU Commission’s 2021 strategy on the issue is failing?
“No, I would say quite the contrary,” Schinas says. “The strategy is now giving us the necessary tools to cope with a situation which risks becoming a major issue. Depending also on the events in the Middle East. We are seeing this rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the European Union, but our member states now have national plans to fight against anti-Semitism. We have additional resources that we will deploy for the security of the places of worship and schools. We want to protect our Jewish communities in Europe. I visited Antwerp, Thessaloniki, Strasbourg precisely to show them that we are standing next to them.”
Produced by Juliette Laurain, Georgina Robertson and Perrine Desplats