BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2020) The European Commission might end up badly damaging "the European way of life" it has pledged to protect and promote, with consequences, either deliberate or accidental, ranging from erasing the traditional European identities and values to limiting the sovereignty of EU member states, experts told Sputnik.
Speaking at a joint press conference on Friday with European Parliament President David Sassoli and European Council head Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the challenges and opportunities facing the European Union would not change after Brexit and among such things she listed "managing migration in an effective and humane way."
VON DER LEYEN'S TAKE ON MIGRATION
In the political guidelines released upon her election as European Commission president, von der Leyen outlined six headline ambitions for Europe to be pursued within her five-year term, among them "Protecting our European way of life." She elaborated this concept as encompassing the rule of law and internal security but also what she framed as "Strong borders and a fresh start on migration."
"Europe has a responsibility to help the countries hosting refugees to offer them decent and humanitarian conditions. To this end, I support the establishment of humanitarian corridors," the commission president wrote. On behalf of Europe, she pledged to "always honour our values and extend a helping hand to refugees fleeing persecution or conflict - it is our moral duty."
Institutionalizing this pledge, von der Leyen rephrased it from "protecting" to "promoting our European way of life."
"'Protection' could have included the protection of our agriculture, our industries, our services, the limitation of the invasion of migration, the security of our fellow citizens. 'Promoting' has nothing to do with protecting," French lawmaker at the European Parliament from the National Front party Jerome Riviere said, sharing his opinion with Sputnik.
In her mission letter to Margaritis Schinas, European Commission Vice President for Promoting our European Way of Life � an exact title, created by herself � von der Leyen defined the European way of life as "ensuring dignity and equality for all." She has also asked him to focus on "creating pathways to legal migration in order to help us bring in people with the skills and talents including our economy and the labour market need."
PERSONAL EXAMPLE OF EUROPEANNESS
Von der Leyen presents herself on Twitter as "Brussels-born. European by heart."
According to Mischael Modrikamen, the president of the now-dissolved People's Party of Belgium and the vice-president of the also-dissolved Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, believes that von der Leyen's policy is largely guided by her personal life experiences. Speaking to Sputnik, he cited her sister dying of cancer as a reason for her to support cancer research, for example.
"She has taken a young Syrian refugee in her home four years ago and presents him as an example of successful integration," Modrikamen said. "The youngster has learned German and English and is now doing his secondary school. So frankly, the youngster is not yet integrated, far from it, and he is in the most fantastic conditions to succeed, in the rich family of Ursula von der Leyen!"
But what about the hundreds of thousands of others who came to live a life very different from that, and whom Germany now tries desperately to integrate at a huge cost to the German taxpayer, Modrikamen asks.
RATHER THAN 'PROMOTING' EUROPEAN WAY OF LIFE, PRESERVE IT FIRST
Lawmaker Jerome Riviere believes that before proceeding to promote anything, the commission president must ensure that what most people in Europe see as truly their way of life is preserved.
"Mrs von der Leyen is careful not to specify what she wants to promote. Our way of life must first be preserved," he told Sputnik.
Elaborating on Europeanness, he said it should not be about "the dictatorship of progressive minorities," but rather about protecting traditions and preserving European identities. Migratory submersion does not hold it, he said, nor does the leniency toward the Islamization of the continent.
"The European way of life is not the rule of law and the ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] over popular will. The European way of life is not Turkey's membership but it should be its sanction for violating the land of our member state Cyprus," the lawmaker continued, adding that "Ursula von der Leyen has given up protecting all of this, and history will not be on her side."
The commission's plan on migration includes such a measure as reinforcing the European Border and Coast Guard Agency with additional Frontex border guards � to count 10,000 by 2024 � as a way "to give enough help to Member States facing the most pressure because of their place on map." Tom Vandendriessche, a Belgian member of the European Parliament from the far-right Vlaams Belang party, sees in it an attempt to limit the sovereignty of such EU states.
"The will of von der Leyen is for the Commission to replace the first-line countries, such as Greece, Italy or Hungary, which are supposed to defend the European integrity by closing their borders to the massive arrivals of illegal economic migrants. Extending Frontex and its responsibilities is going in that direction. These states are sovereign nations and it should be their priority, not that of the European Commission which is actually trying to take it away from them," he told Sputnik.
"We do not believe in a Federal, supranational Europe, as the present Commission tries to impose. We want collaboration between national well-assumed states," the lawmaker added.
His sentiments are well shared by his French colleague, EU lawmaker Jerome Riviere, who says "We are of course all Europeans and want to create a Europe of cooperation between sovereign states."
