Migration to the EU and Member States' differing attitudes towards it

22.1.2018

Question for written answer E-000326-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Morten Messerschmidt (ECR)

In the light of the article ‘Europe's migrants are here to stay’ by the Commissioner with responsibility for migration — in Politico Magazine on 7 December 2017 — does the Commission regard it as abnormal that the political differences between the 28 EU Member States’ governments, which, as is well known, range from conservative to communist, are reflected in differing degrees of willingness to accept migrants from Africa and the Middle East in particular?

If the Commission does not think that, does it think that such political differences can still exist if we are to ‘collectively change our way of thinking’, as the Commissioner puts it in the article?

Should the Commission not want there to be differences in political thinking between Member State governments, can it explain how, in future, the democratic decision-taking process can take account of the differences between Europe’s peoples in what they want?