The Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Protection of the European Lifestyle, Margaritis Schinás, visited Barcelona last Thursday. Her “symbolic” visit was the first bilateral meeting in seven years between a member of the European Executive and the Generalitat. The independence aspirations of the Catalan Government cooled the relationship with Brussels. Schinás, for years spokesman for the Commission, became the face of the EU’s refusal to give wings to independence. With her meeting with President Pere Aragonès, she now intends to be the man who returns to normalize relations. The visit of the commissioner responsible for European migration policy took place days after the Melilla fence tragedy.
Is there a thaw with the Government?
We must avoid seeing this visit in dramatic tones. It is no secret that there was a difficult moment in the Europe-Spain-Catalonia triangle, a breakthrough moment in which Europe has always assumed a very clear, very transparent position, rooted in Spanish and European institutional and constitutional realities. This message, unfortunately, was not understood in Catalonia at that time. But now we enter a much more realistic logic, of institutional normality. This visit marks the moment of turning the page.
Is there a before and after this visit?
That is the message that I have transferred to the president. The return to normality is the consequence of this constructive spirit of realism that dominates here. But if there is another breakthrough moment and all the demons of the past return, there is a risk of changing that logic.
A few days ago, dozens of migrants died trying to jump the Melilla fence.
It’s a tragedy. What happened raises a difficult but necessary debate. The external border of the European Union has to be protected, and this is a collective responsibility. Of the Europeans and our neighbors, who have to work with us, not against us as they have done in Ceuta, on the Greek-Turkish border or with Belarus. This tragedy poses this problem in its multiple dimensions.
It has given the impression that both the Spanish Government and Brussels have tried to avoid criticism of Morocco. Was the performance correct?
Both in my times as spokesperson and in my times as a member of the college of commissioners, I have always been very reluctant to offer opinions from Brussels on operational issues. This is not a role for the commissioners, we do not know how it works, what the dynamics are on the ground… Police operations are a matter for the competent authorities.
He is the Immigration Commissioner.
Precisely as Commissioner for Migration, I prefer that the issue of operations be carried out by the regional and national authorities. We must fight against human traffickers, but always with a sense of proportionality and in accordance with European values. But there will never be a European immigration policy with an unguarded external border.
The UN secretary-general has said that he found the “excessive use of force” “unacceptable.”
I share this opinion, but together with my colleagues we have asked our neighbors to assume their obligations in the management of immigration. Therefore, when they assume them, we cannot tell them not to do it either. It does not mean that they have to do it that way, but sentences and simple approaches are sometimes not enough to understand what is happening at the EU borders.
The increase in the prices of raw materials raises fears that the migratory pressure on the borders with the EU will grow.
Europe will continue to be a destination of asylum for all those fleeing war or persecution. We have tried it with Syria, all the Syrians who have applied for asylum have obtained it. We have tested it with the six million Ukrainians who are with us. But those who do not have the right to opt for European asylum protection cannot be with us. It is an obligation that we have to assume collectively, and this raises the problem of external border control.
Are you concerned that needing neighboring countries to help control the migratory flow will turn that need into a mechanism for getting favored deals?
We cannot outsource the obligation to manage the migration. But it is possible to build win-win agreements. Europe mobilizes everything it has to improve people’s lives and prevent them from falling into the hands of traffickers. They are committed to accepting returns and strengthening their borders.
The creation of his portfolio generated controversy on the grounds that the name, Protection of the European Lifestyle, fueled far-right rhetoric.
It was a schizophrenic, self-flagellating debate. Europe is known as the epicenter of good governance, values, democracy… Some, especially on the left, focused more on the label than on the content. For me, the European way of life is not a bulldozer that crushes everyone who is not like us, but a mirror that reflects the diversity and richness of our languages, our culture, our history. I feel very proud.
The NATO summit has made it clear that Europe is back at the center of a new cold war with Russia. Are the European partners united enough?
A European public opinion has emerged. For the first time, we Europeans perceive war as something that concerns us. There is a certain unity that is also reflected at the political level. We are buying weapons for Ukraine with community money, we are moving towards a defense policy with the launch of a rapid reaction force of five thousand men, more than ten billion euros of community budget for defense…
Are you worried about the attitude of certain countries like Hungary, with an ambiguous relationship with Putin?
In some capitals, such as Budapest or Warsaw, there were those who tried to make believe that Brussels was the new Moscow, that they had not left the USSR to fall into the hands of the EU. Now they see that the new Moscow is the old Moscow and that Brussels is all they have.
Should Ukraine’s accession to the EU be accelerated?
It was very important to give the signal that Ukraine and Moldova are with us. Ukraine is the only country where people have been killed for demonstrating with European flags. We can’t tell them they were carrying the wrong flags. It is a historical debt. Now, this should not mean an artificial or accelerated calendar. History shows that scaling success comes when there is no pastry. Both countries are taking it very seriously.
