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EUROPEAN UNION

EU to resettle 61,000 refugees across Europe over next two years

The European Union has committed to resettling nearly 61,000 refugees in some of its member countries over the next two years. Around 20 percent of world's refugees have been welcomed by the bloc over the last three years.

Published: 14 December 2023 13:19 CET
EU to resettle 61,000 refugees across Europe over next two years
Refugees in Athens Greece. The EU is to settle 61,000 across the bloc over next two years. Photo by Louisa GOULIAMAKI / AFP

“We have, since 2015, resettled and through humanitarian admission programmes giving protection to 175,000 people in the European Union,” European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told a press conference on the margins of the United Nations’ Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Thursday.

“And now, I am happy to announce that for 2024 and 2025 I have, from 14 member states, pledges for resettlement and humanitarian admission (for) … almost 61,000 people,” she said.

Around 31,000 of that total would be resettled via programmes run by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Johansson said the figure was slightly higher than in recent years.

She did not say which 14 of the 27 EU member states would be taking in the refugees.

The UNHCR’s resettlement programmes enable people who have officially sought protection in one country to be transferred to another country that has agreed to admit them, afford them international protection and ultimately give them permanent residence.

Johansson said that over the past three years, bloc members had granted protection to approximately one million people, which meant that the EU was hosting “20 percent of the world’s refugees”.

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POLITICS

Le Pen urges French to ‘inflict scathing electoral sanction’ on Macron

Leader of the hard-right Rassemblement National party Marine Le Pen called on the French on Wednesday to “inflict” on Emmanuel Macron “the most scathing electoral sanction” possible during the European election ballot on June 9th.

Published: 1 May 2024 16:01 CEST
Le Pen urges French to 'inflict scathing electoral sanction' on Macron

“We must counter them, we must sanction them, we must dismiss them,” said Le Pen, speaking from the podium of a major meeting of her party in Perpignan.

“We must give this power the most scathing electoral sanction that can be inflicted on it. And this sanction will be measured by the gap between the list led by [Rassemblement National president] Jordan Bardella and that of the Macronist deconstructors,” she added.

For now, Bardella’s Rassemblement National (RN) list is far ahead of Macron’s Renaissance list led by Valérie Hayer: 32 percent against 17 percent, according to an Ipsos survey published on Monday.

“This election of June 9 constitutes (…) a call for general mobilisation,” said Le Pen in her speech.

“No abstentions, but no dispersion either,” she said, warning voters who could be tempted by other candidates on the right, in particular that of Marion Maréchal (Reconquête) on the far right.

READ ALSO: How to register in France to vote in the 2024 European elections

“One day, one round, one vote: Bardella,” she added.

Speaking to over 2,000 activists gathered in the largest city led by the RN, Le Pen called on her troops not to “give in to intellectual terrorism” on the subject of the European Union.

“We are right to be critical. We are right to want something different for Europe and for France and for ourselves,” she said, admitting to wanting to “say no” on certain themes, such as “migratory submersion”, “the destruction of our economy in the name of ecological decline” or the “technocratic government of Brussels or elsewhere”.

France goes to vote on June 9th to elect 81 members (nearly one seventh of the total) of the European Parliament.

READ ALSO: OPINION: A European disaster for Macron could lead to messy autumn elections in France

Jordan Bardella tops the National Rally’s list, Marion Maréchal is leading Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête list, Valérie Hayer is leading the European elections campaign for Macron’s Renaissance party and Raphael Glucksmann is the lead candidate for the Socialists.

Recent polls point to support in the high teens for Macron’s centrist party, well below the far-right National Rally at around 30 percent, while the Socialists are snapping at the presidential camp’s heels for second place.

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