Billions of EU taxpayer's money on walls is a waste and contrary to EU values

Renew Europe wants a speedy finalisation of the Joint Roadmap on Migration and Asylum. Populist rhetoric about EU-funded walls will bring us nowhere. The Group reiterates its stance following the European Council's conclusions of 9 February on how to approach migration and asylum.

With regards to those conclusions, Renew Europe is deeply concerned with the European Council´s implication that they have to be executed fully by the other EU institutions. As clearly stated in the EU Treaties, the European Council is neither a legislative body nor the budget authority and therefore cannot instruct the Commission or the Parliament what rules to adopt or budgets to mobilise. Negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU are the legitimate arena for constructing an EU migration policy. These negotiations have yielded steady and significant progress in the past year.

Sophie in 't Veld (Netherlands, D66), Renew Europe's coordinator in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, said:

"Renew Europe does not want a fortress Europe built on the backs of EU taxpayers; we want genuine efforts and progress on a European approach to migration through the Joint Roadmap agreed last year between the co-legislating EU institutions.

Talk of walls distracts from the real need to make progress on sensible migration measures. At last, the Council and European Parliament are working together on the Migration and Asylum Pact in a cooperative spirit. We cannot afford to derail the hard work that has been done in recent months.

The conclusions also constitute a power grab in broad daylight. The European Council has no power whatsoever to tell the Commission and Council what actions to take. It is time that the European Parliament, as legislator, budget authority and only directly elected body of the EU, reminds the European Council of the Treaty provisions and restores the balance of power between the institutions."