Paolo Gentiloni Quotes

I do not have the slightest bit of confidence in the European Union to protect the borders of the European Union.

If there is not a united policy, this mechanism will not work: it will collapse, and it will... undoubtedly be the end of Schengen, the return of national borders.

No one wants to kill Schengen, but if it is only a fairweather system, then it cannot survive.

Before we kill Schengen, we have to make Dublin work.

In Greece, refugees are being waved through to the heart of Europe. That is simply unacceptable in the long run. The European Union cannot act like a human trafficker.

A Europe without internal borders can only exist if it has functioning external borders.

We now have two options: We can commence operations at the Hotspots in Italy and Greece and continue to do nothing - in which case they would soon be overflowing. Or we can show responsibility and organize a distribution system that takes into account the limits of each individual member state. Migrants, for their part, must recognize that, while they have a right to protection, they do not have the right to freely choose the country. In addition, it is clear: Not everybody can come to us.

If the Schengen system (of border-free travel) is destroyed, Europe will be seriously endangered politically and economically. That is why we Europeans have to invest billions in Turkey, Libya, Jordan and other countries in the region as quickly as possible everybody as much as they can.

Regarding the visa-free regime, it has undoubtedly become a problem for the European Union, above all in terms of its capacity to reach agreements.

We need not to just kill the boat-smuggling business model: we also need to get rid of this asylum-shopping in the European Union.

I believe that if we don't offer legal ways of emigrating to Europe and immigrating within Europe, we will be lost. If those who come - who are, generally speaking, the poor and needy - are no longer able to enter the house of Europe through the front door, they'll keep making their way in through the back windows.

We should be clear that we prefer a system that allows people to come to the U.S. with visas, not in the hands of smugglers.

The influx of migrants must be stopped.

Enough of Sicily being the refugee camp of Europe. I will not stand by and do nothing while there are landings after landings of migrants.

Schengen cannot survive without the most dramatic reform, and the external borders of Europe must be rapidly strengthened.

In 2015, the majority of refugees and migrants reached the European Union through Greece. Greek authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving at their shores. But they did not stay there. They were waved through to Central Europe at an increasing pace.

I ask our European partners for a truly European migration management. The burden of landings cannot weigh only on the countries of arrival.

Every country in the E.U. should make a personnel and a financial contribution in that area. We shouldn't leave alone countries like Italy and Greece that have external borders; rather, we must make the external borders safe together.

The issue of migration has played a key role in all of our member states, wherever we are. Only we, as a European Union, can convince our citizens that we do have an answer to this - not deny migration, not pretend you can solve it by building fences and walls, not pretending we can solve it by letting everybody in.

Whatever happens with Brexit, what I am absolutely convinced will not happen is that free movement of individuals, free movement of people, will not change, North and South without passports.

I would like free movement within the E.U. as a result of us protecting external borders.

What is the issue that has brought the European Union to the brink? The issue of migration.

One of the issues that has been an issue in how we deal with net migration up until now is that we haven't been able to have any control over freedom of movement from the European Union. We will have that control in the future once we leave the EU.

There has at least been a serious effort on the Turkish side to prevent people from setting off for Europe. Recently, only about 100 people have been arriving in Greece per day. Last year, it was several thousand daily at times. This effort can, however, also very quickly dwindle.

The claim made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that the refugee question is a German problem is incorrect. It is a European problem.