SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Jan. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands and vice-president of the Conference of Regional Legislative Assemblies of the EU (CALRE), Gustavo Matos, defended this Friday in the Belgian region of Wallonia the need to make a call from the regions to the rest of the institutions of the Union and to the Member States to achieve an “effective and permanent joint response” to the problem of managing migration and asylum in the territory of the EU.
Matos spoke at the first meeting of CALRE in 2022, held at the Walloon Parliament headquarters under the chairmanship of Jean-Claude Marcourt, recently elected as the new president of the Conference after two years in which the Canary Islands Parliament has remained at the forehead.
For his part, Matos coordinates this year the working group ‘Migration Policies and Human Rights. Unaccompanied Foreign Minors’, which, as stated at this first CALRE meeting, will work with the aim of designing a common regional strategy as a response to the migratory phenomenon and conveying that joint position of the Conference.
“Faced with the humanitarian drama of irregular migration and the massive arrival of immigrants in Europe fleeing from extreme living conditions, from places where personal safety and individual freedom are not guaranteed, it is necessary to work on a response that must be based on solidarity and respect for human rights, principles on which the current EU was founded and which continue to be the values that distinguish us as a common project of coexistence”, he commented.
In this regard, he considered the role of the regions to be essential, especially those that, due to their geographical location, border the EU.
“They constitute the first line of response as entry points, despite having limited resources, which has a great impact on their public policies. It is essential, therefore, that these regions be considered places of passage and not places of stay permanent,” he said.
Gustavo Matos insisted on the need to share the response, management and responsibility between all regions, those that are borders and those that are not, the Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament, “in a framework of response and governance multilevel”.
In his opinion, “the European Union continues to be a beacon of freedom, that space in which freedoms and personal security are guaranteed. It continues to be a place longed for by millions of human beings who want to improve their living conditions”.
A BETTER EUROPE
The meeting was preceded by the ceremony for the transfer of the presidency of the 2022 Conference to Jean-Claude Marcourt.
Gustavo Matos gave a tour of the main challenges facing the EU in his speech: “COVID-19 has put us to the test from all possible points of view: health, social, economic, institutional, but I think a much better Europe comes out of this harsh episode”.
He stated that the many lessons left by COVID “should be the opportunity we needed to try to move towards a more cohesive, fairer and more sustainable Europe that allows us to redefine and give new impetus to the European project”.
At this point, he highlighted the essential work that the regions are developing in the recovery process.
“We must understand that what happens in one State or in one region happens throughout the Union, so perhaps this is the right time to really work for a solid, universal and equal European Union of health, which goes hand in hand with an inalienable commitment to public health,” he said.
Matos also argued that COVID has revealed the full validity of the EU’s founding values.
“The Next Generation Funds are today the largest stimulus package ever financed to create a greener, more digital and more resilient Europe, but they also represent a commitment to strengthening those founding principles”, he pointed out, adding that, in this sense The regions, parliaments and assemblies that represent more than 200 million people have been key.
Another issue highlighted in his speech is the need for the EU to keep the demographic challenge on the agenda by addressing its two faces, depopulation and overpopulation.
“The Union must respond to the social, environmental and economic consequences of overpopulation. Compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals requires territorial cohesion, and this demographic challenge is faced by working, in the medium and long term, on compliance with such objectives set in the 2030 Agenda”, he pointed out.
YOUNG PEOPLE, THE “ANTIDOTE” TO DISCONNECTION
He also highlighted the key role of a European youth increasingly prepared, more mature and more involved in the process of redefining the Union. “They, our young people, are the best antidote against the disconnection between citizens and institutions,” he commented.
Regarding the work of the Parliament of the Canary Islands in the Presidency of CALRE, the participants in the meeting agreed to value the effort made to value the necessary role of the regions in the European project.
Matos stressed that it has been an honor to defend that idea from an outermost region. “Thank you for allowing us, despite the many difficulties arising from the pandemic, to offer the Europeanist vision of a southern territory,” he commented.
The president of the Canarian Chamber also thanked the presidents of the parliaments and assemblies of Europe for the collaboration and affection that they have given to the Canary Islands in these two years.
“We have had them by our side in good times but, above all, in critical ones, such as recently during the volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma. We have felt moved and overwhelmed with so many signs of solidarity,” he said.
To conclude, he wished the president of the Parliament of Wallonia and the new president of CALRE all the successes in his mandate.
