Star appeal: EU Commission Vice-President urges celebrities to mobilise young voters
EU Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas joins Euronews Correspondent Sasha Vakulina on the Global Conversation to discuss newly agreed migration policies and the upcoming European elections.
Transcript
00:00 Has the EU gotten it right when it comes to one of the bloc's most divisive issues, the
00:05 migration policy, and how it will play out at the next EU Parliament elections in June?
00:11 This is what we discuss with the European Commission Vice President Margaritis Skinas
00:16 in the Global Conversation.
00:17 Vice President, thank you so much for being here.
00:34 And let's start with one of the most burning issues when it comes to the EU policies, which
00:38 is migration.
00:39 Now, when you became the Commission in 2019, that had already been quite an important and
00:45 massive issue.
00:46 Now, ever since, the crisis has got into a different dimension with more conflicts and
00:51 with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
00:54 How do you see the current EU migration policies?
00:57 Also, given the recent agreement signed with Egypt and Tunisia, do you think we're going
01:03 to see more of the agreements of this kind?
01:06 In the current political cycle on migration, we had to work at the same time as firefighters
01:13 and architects.
01:16 Firefighters in dealing with the many crises, both at our external border, but also within
01:22 the Union, running from crisis to crisis, from incident to incident, ship to ship.
01:28 And I would dare say, in most of the cases, successfully managing the many migration emergencies.
01:35 Next to that, we, for the first time after decades of failure, we managed to produce
01:42 a major European agreement on a new EU pact for migration and asylum.
01:47 Since the 20th of December last year, Europe at last has a comprehensive, holistic migration
01:56 policy that starts at our borders, rather starts at countries of origin and transit
02:02 – I'll come to Egypt in a second – then on a more federalized control of our external
02:08 border, and finally on solidarity.
02:11 On the external dimension of migration policy, we have invested lots of time and efforts,
02:15 and many of my colleagues, from the President down, President Michel also was very helpful
02:21 in that.
02:22 We tried to establish partnerships with the 25 countries of origin and transit that matter
02:29 to us on migration.
02:31 We will never be able to cope internally unless we're able to cope externally.
02:36 And I think that now, with a landmark agreement with Egypt, which follows in the line of our
02:43 earlier statement with Turkey, following the agreement with Tunisia, now we have a web
02:49 of partnership agreements with major migration partners that will undoubtedly help us to
02:56 improve the situation in managing migration flows in a cooperative way.
03:01 Now, let's talk a little more about the elections.
03:03 Elections, of course, have always been one of the most divisive issues for the national
03:07 politics and for the European politics.
03:09 We have seen over the past years that across Europe the governments are shifting right.
03:15 Are you worried about the possible swing from centre to right as a result of the EU elections
03:20 in June?
03:21 First of all, I think that we have to be collectively proud for the European Union because we are
03:28 a union of democracies.
03:31 Elections are a good thing for us.
03:33 This is why people envy us.
03:36 This is why we are so admired in the world, because we have elections, free, open elections,
03:42 and the European election is the second most numerous electoral process on the planet after
03:47 the Indian elections.
03:49 So no, I'm not particularly worried.
03:52 I think that what matters is for Europeans to go to vote and attribute praise or blame
04:00 on what works and what doesn't.
04:03 I don't think that we have to jump into a conclusion that this will be a triumph of
04:08 the extremes or the extreme right that would paralyse everything.
04:12 OK, 24% of the Dutch people voted for Geert Wilders, but 76% did not, and he will not
04:21 be the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
04:24 And if you look at Poland, it was not the populist right that won.
04:29 It was Donald Tusk and his moderate allies.
04:32 If you look at Rome, I don't see Giorgia Meloni as a catalyst for the extreme Putinophiles.
04:41 I see her as a barrage to the extreme right and the friends of Putin.
04:46 So let's wait a bit.
04:49 Let's not jump into a conclusion.
04:50 We still have two months.
04:52 Let's see what happens.
04:53 Well, the whole two months indeed.
04:54 But do you consider your political group having an alliance with the far right?
04:58 Where would be this red line that your political group would not cross when it comes to making
05:04 possible alliances?
05:05 Well, I'm here in my quality as Vice President of the European Commission.
05:09 I'm not after Manfred Weber's job, but I can offer my personal view of how things are developing.
05:19 I think the EPP would be at the heart of a broad coalition of moderate pro-European forces,
05:27 as it has always been the case so far.
05:30 I do not see the EPP of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for example, joining any extreme right allies.
05:40 This will not happen.
05:41 Kyriakos and Jean-Claude Juncker are the ones who wanted Orban out of the EPP, I may
05:49 remind you.
05:50 So I see the EPP central at the heart of the new web of political alliances in the European
05:55 Parliament.
05:57 I see that on certain subjects we can work as we did for the migration pact with a large
06:04 chunk of the ECR, Giorgia Meloni and the Italian MEPs of Fratelli d'Italia backed overwhelmingly
06:14 together with the Liberals, the centre-right and the Socialists.
06:17 So that's how I see the centre of gravity in the new Parliament.
06:22 And finally, briefly, do you consider doing more now in terms of motivating the young
06:29 Europeans to come to the polls and vote in June, specifically those for whom that's going
06:33 to be the very first election?
06:35 Absolutely.
06:36 I mean, look what happened during the Brexit referendum.
06:41 We had so many inspiring pro-European figures admired in the UK, but the yes vote failed
06:52 to mobilise them.
06:54 And it was a mistake that we paid dearly.
06:58 Let's not do the same mistake in the European elections.
07:02 There are so many leaders out there in sports, in culture, in arts, in philosophy, creative
07:09 industries.
07:10 We are the envy of the world when it comes to football.
07:15 In all areas we excel and most of these people are committed Europeans.
07:22 They work across borders, they make their reputation across borders.
07:26 What's wrong with having these people talk to young Europeans and tell them, go to vote?
07:32 That's I think something that governments should also embrace.
07:35 I'm doing it from Brussels.
07:38 I don't think that commissioners are the right people to talk to young people to tell them
07:42 go to vote.
07:43 Because probably it will create the opposite effect.
07:47 But I take the opportunity of the launch of the new Euronews now to make this appeal to
07:53 those who lead by example, to the role models.
07:56 These are the people whom we need.
07:58 [SWOOSH]