The Union Group is planning a clear commitment to the UN Migration Pact. "We believe that the benefits of this pact far outweigh the disadvantages," said Group Vice-President Stephan Harbarth following a debate on the issue. A request would now be drafted, and the Union would go to the coalition partner SPD. Harbarth claims to own words that the Bundestag at the end of November / early December, a decision. One wanted to lead the dispute over the pact with the AfD "completely openly and offensively".
The document adopted by the UN member states will be adopted at a summit in Morocco on 10 and 11 December. The USA, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic do not want to participate. The right-wing conservative government in Vienna justified its withdrawal with the concern that Austria would no longer be able to decide for itself who would be allowed to enter the country after signing. It threatens a mixture of legal and illegal migration, labor migration and asylum.
In Germany above all the AfD mobilizes against the pact. For Thursday, the right-wing populists have requested a parliamentary debate on the subject.
Union politician Harbarth explained that Germany has relatively high standards in dealing with migrants, such as health care, access to educational institutions and the labor market. Therefore, there is a "considerable migration pressure" to Germany. In other countries, these basic benefits are not available, which is driving migrants to move on. Therefore, Germany had an interest in having these minimum standards introduced in other countries so that migrants would stay there. "That's why it's important that we now practice this international approach," said Harbarth. The pact is therefore "in our national interest".
As it was called from Union factions after a long debate, the vast majority of CDU / CSU MEPs are behind the approach now adopted. But there are certainly individuals who are still skeptical. A key question in the debate was how binding the pact was for Germany. Proponents of the pact emphasize that national sovereignty is not affected by the agreement.
According to the participants, it was critically noted that they had entered the debate too late and that the social media reports had initially not been presented with their own presentation.