First ‪‎Relocation‬ Flight from Greece in the presence of the 3 European Institutions(video)

 First ‪#‎Relocation‬ Flight from Greece in the presence of the 3 European Institutions, represented by Martin Schulz for the European Parliament Parliament, Jean Asselborn for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Dimitris Avramopoulos for the European Commission ; and in the presence of the Cabinet of Greece, represented by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Alternate Minister Ioánnis Mouzálas:

-saying goobye on the tarmac of Athens International Airport "Eleftherios Venizelos",
-joint press statements: Martin Schulz - European Parliament President(‪#‎FULL‬ version),
-‪#‎familypicture‬ of the the members of the 3 EU institutions and of the Cabinet of Greece.

EXTRACTS from the transcript - ‪#‎MartinSchulz‬, EP President, "Thank you very much, Ladies and Gentlemen, Prime Minister, President of the Council, Commissioner, Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we are all impressed by the smile of the children we just brought to the airplane and this is exactly what, in my eyes, plays a key role, nobody leaves his homeland without reasons. And the people who left from Syria - we just met families from Aleppo -, they are trying to survive, in those very difficult circumstances and, let's be honest, they are fleeing from their homeland, because of the terror of the the so-called Islamic State, because of the bombs of the Assad regime. Let's not forget about what we are speaking, a refugee crisis is, first of all, a crisis of the refugees. (...)

This is a very, very important cooperation and I hope that the starting point of today will now increase the numbers of such refugees we can relocate and, in the long run, resettle in the European Union. (...)

If we have to distribute, let's say, a million of refugees amongst 507 million of citizens, it is no problem. But, if we reduce the number of countries participating to a few ones, then it becomes for the countries a problem. And, therefore, my appeal is, since the beginning of the crisis, the European Parliament made that appeal to all member states of the European Union to participate and, therefore I thank Luxembourg. (...)

One of the basic values of the European Union is solidarity. It is not solidarity between authorities, it's is solidarity amongst nations. And, therefore our appeal is, that the Greek Nation, like the German, like the Italian, like the Slovenian, like the Austrian, should not be..., or the Luxemburgish, or the Spanish or whomever should not be alone. We must stick together to solve the problems and to manage the challenge. (...)

Let's be honest: it is a starting point. We have not yet solved the problems. There are a lot of things to do and we will meet next week in Malta, in Valetta, to the EU-Africa Summit and to an extraordinary summit President Tusk has called for, to look where we are and what is still ahead and, therefore, once more, I can only repeat my appeal to all the member states of the European Union. Those who are arguing, 'this is a German problem, or this is a Greek problem, or this is an Italian problem, are wrong, it is a European challenge."

© Frédérick Moulin 2015 - EU2015 - EP - All rights reserved.