EPP boss Manfred Weber: "If necessary, fences must also be built"

Enlarge image

EPP boss Manfred Weber

Photo: Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa

In view of the increasing number of illegal border crossings into the EU, the President of the European People's Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, has called for decisive action against illegal migration.

»The EU states will sleepwalk into a new migration crisis if they don't act now.

This huge challenge must finally be taken seriously," Weber told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

"If necessary, fences must also be built, for example in the south-east of the EU, in order to be able to control the arriving migrants as completely as possible."

To do this, the EU must also support the financing of these border installations.

He also called for a rapid increase in controls at the external borders, both at sea and on land.

The EU member states must also take the final steps to ensure that a solidarity mechanism within the EU finally works.

In the first eleven months of this year, the EU border protection agency Frontex registered around 308,000 attempts to enter the EU without permission.

Frontex announced this week that this was an increase of 68 percent compared to the same period last year.

The Warsaw-based authority spoke of the highest value in the first eleven months since 2016.

kry/dpa