SUSPENDING FREE MOVEMENT? OFF THE TABLE!
The co-chairs of the European Green Party Monica Frassoni and Reinhard Bütikofer comment on the article on the Sunday Telegraph (
here ) by the UK Home Secretary Theresa May, who declared that the right to free movement should be limited to those having a job and that this summer migrant-crisis has been 'exacerbated by the European system of no borders'. “
The declaration of Minister May against free circulation of EU citizens and its alleged effects on the migrants crisis demonstrate clearly that Cameron's Cabinet wants to negotiate its way in Europe by trying to dismantle it.
Such a nationalist and extreme position leaves even Farage behind and does not take into account the benefits migrants bring to the host country: as demonstrated in a recent study of Open society, the UK would lose up to 2.2 % of its GDP by closing its borders and exiting the EU.
Freedom of circulation and freedom of establishment are hard-earned achievements and a shared patrimony all EU citizens benefit from, in all countries including in the UK. Suspending it or re-nationalising common policies is off the table. Reinstating borders would not be the cure: migrants and refugees flux are the symptom, while war, conflicts, poverty and climate disasters are the disease. Frontiers would just increase human suffering and waste money in non-efficient measures, like systematic checks on EU travellers.
In terms of security, intelligence and more cooperation are the best answers to combat terrorism and organised crime.
The Greens will fight and mobilise against this creeping tendency to dismantle our common house and to put in question the common values EU citizenship represent.