Franziska Keller, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. — Mr President, I would also like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Coelho, for his outstanding work and also my fellow shadow rapporteurs and all the staff who have been working on it. Indeed, I think we have achieved quite a lot with this regulation. We have finally put in place a binding rescue-at-sea regulation and this is really an achievement, when I recall how much the Council has been opposed to that.

We have put into place a definition of what constitutes a situation of rescue at sea so that Member States finally cannot turn a blind eye any more to people who are in need. We have managed to put in place quite a number of safeguard mechanisms for refugees and we have also prevented push-backs on the high seas. So that is already good and I think we, as a Parliament, have also achieved this against the Council. For that, thank you again to the rapporteur Mr Coelho but — and here I have to insert a ‘but’ — this regulation does not put in place, it does not put into reality, what the European Court of Human Rights has been calling for.

The Court has been setting out very concrete criteria for when putting people back into third countries, pushing them back or disembarking them in third countries is allowed and when it is not allowed. Because the question here, the core question, is how can we identify people in need? The European Court of Human Rights has put the personal circumstances of each person at the core of this question. It has said that each person has to be assessed individually, and this is not now the case in each and every circumstance.

The Court has also said that people have to be able to explain their reasons why they should not be sent back to third countries and why they are in need of protection. How is this supposed to be possible if interpretation will only be provided by radio and not on board the ship?

Also, the Court said that refugees have to be able to lodge an appeal, to have the legal means to appeal against being pushed back into third countries, against being disembarked in third countries, and this not the case. You might argue that it is impossible to put that in place on the high seas and yes, we have been saying that, but what the European Court of Human Rights has said is not being put into place.

We cannot simply make laws disregarding what the Court of Human Rights tells us to do. We cannot simply overrule a Court decision and then say maybe we can find another refugee who has survived this journey and is able to lodge an appeal at the Court. They have been putting minimum standards in place. The Court has been putting in place what should be the absolute minimum for how we make regulations and we should not go below that, but that is absolutely what is happening now with this regulation. Human rights have to be valued everywhere. The rule of law has to apply to everybody, also to refugees.