‘Europe will need 6 million immigrants’
The European Commissioner on Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos was speaking at the University of Geneva on Monday evening, in the midst of the EU crisis, when he said that the EU needed at least 6 million more immigrants.
Published: March 10, 2017, 10:24 am
Some twenty-five years ago, before becoming mayor of Athens, and then successively Minister of Health, Defense and Foreign Affairs in his country Greece, Avramopoulos was the first guest of the new Dusan Sidjanski Center for European Studies, which was inaugurated in October by the Global Studies Institute.
“When I took up my post in November 2014, the EU was struggling with the financial crisis. I did not imagine that migration and internal affairs would soon be the two most important challenges for the Union,” he told the audience.
“The migratory wave and terrorism have plunged Europe into an existential crisis. The very foundations of the EU are being questioned, ” Avramopoulos said. “As we commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March, member countries face instability and insecurity.”
In short, Europe is at a crossroads, he believes. “This is a historic moment. Our values are at stake. Are we going to be overwhelmed by the rise of populism, nationalism and xenophobia? Are we going to reintroduce controls at the internal borders of the EU? Sacrifice the freedom of movement so dear to our citizens? We soon forget that the EU is one of the greatest achievements of history. After two world wars, achieving such a union is not a matter of course. Even today, it is wrong to regard this as an acquired fact.”
He added that immigration would have to continue. “The 27 [EU states] will need 6 million immigrants in the future,” the European Commissioner said.
“We will open offices in all countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean and in West Africa. This is the best way to fight smugglers. Obviously, we are not going to just open the borders and let everybody in. This would be absurd and would only feed xenophobia, nationalism and populism. Having said that, we must protect the persecuted and treat everyone with dignity.”
But the program of distributing 160 000 migrants in Greece and Italy to the EU has been a fiasco. Only 13 546 people have been relocated, while the program expires in September.
“As for the terrorist attacks in the EU, they were committed by European citizens. With one exception, it was never the case of refugees,” Avramopoulos said. “The security services are national, they remain a prerogative of each government. It is this fragmentation that makes us vulnerable. The attacks in Paris were committed by people based in Brussels, who crossed many countries without being stopped … even though they were on lists! It is time to share these sensitive data.”
But the majority of Islamic State militants directly involved in carrying out the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks used the Balkan route to enter Europe under the guise of being refugees, the Hungarian intelligence chief revealed.
Analysis of phone call intercepts established that seven of the nine attackers involved in the November Paris onslaught, which killed 130 and injured 368 people, entered the EU through Hungary last year, the Hungarian Counter Terrorism Center (TEK) chief, General Zsolt Bodnar told RT.
Hungarian intelligence established that one of the Brussels and Paris attacks’ masterminds, Salah Abdeslam, made four trips to Hungary in August and October 2015 where he arranged for at least nine terrorists linked to the Paris and Brussels bombings to enter Europe. The men were involved in a number of attacks in Europe last year.
Nearly 60 percent of Europeans believe the threat of terrorism increases as more migrants arrive in their countries, a recent PEW survey found.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

Thousands of Flemish farmers block roads in Brussels against nitrogen policy
BrusselsMore than 2500 farmers from Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region gathered at Brussels' central Arts-Loi street and blocked roads with tractors toward Brussels to protest the regional government's plan to limit nitrogen emissions.

Orban: EU energy sanctions costing citizens billions
BudapestHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that some western states could soon send troops to Ukraine. He also criticized the fact that the EU sanctions against Russia had cost Hungarian taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Italy: New leader of the Social Democrats is one of Soros’ ‘preferred politicians’
RomeDuring the election campaign, Elly Schlein presented herself as the standard-bearer of the poorest. However, her background and previous work raise doubts about her honesty.

UK greenhouses shut down due to high energy costs
LondonIn Great Britain, a particularly depressing facet of the crisis is now showing its first contours - and thus anticipating what is likely to happen in other European countries in the near future: because of the exploding energy prices, agriculture is being strangled and fresh produce has to be rationed.

Lisbon opens borders to all Portuguese speakers
LisbonNot only the German and Italian governments keep opening new paths for immigration. Portugal, too, has opened a Pandora's box and is paving the way for possibly millions of non-European immigrants to the EU – something which is not mentioned by the mainstream media.

Illegal immigration to Italy has reached its highest level ever
RomeIn Italy, despite the overwhelming right-wing electoral success in September, there is still nothing to be seen of the promised asylum turnaround – on the contrary. Giorgia Meloni has been in office for five months, but the arrivals of migrants in Italy have doubled compared to the previous year.

Dismantling diplomacy with ‘feminist foreign policy’
BudapestGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to counter German security issues abroad with feminist politics. Gender training, LGBTQ events and quotas are now part of their new guidelines, which are intended to bring about "cultural change". The German ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross, provided an embarrassing example.

Germans demand investigation of Nord Stream sabotage
BerlinAfter the sensational revelations by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream attacks on September 26, 2022, the German government has remained silent. It does not want to comment on Hersh's research results, according to which the pipelines were blown up by Americans and Norwegians.

Macron mulling withdrawal of Putin’s Legion of Honour award
ParisAt the end of Jacques Chirac's term in 2007, France and Russia still maintained cordial relations. During his speech at a tripartite summit, the French president had even mentioned bilateral relations that were "excellent in all respects, particularly in the fields of energy, infrastructure and aeronautics".