:00:00. > :00:45.Welcome to Politics Europe. Your regular guide to the top stories in
:00:46. > :00:51.Brussels, Strasbourg, and around Europe. The migrant crisis has
:00:52. > :00:55.bought the European Union at grave risk, says the French Prime
:00:56. > :01:00.Minister. Can the borderless Schengen zone survive? We are
:01:01. > :01:05.looking at strange relations with the new government of Poland.
:01:06. > :01:11.Critics say it is antidemocratic. David Cameron continues to press EU
:01:12. > :01:19.leaders for reforms to Britain's membership. And we have been Tobruk
:01:20. > :01:26.arrest for a tour of the biggest parliament building in the world. --
:01:27. > :01:31.to Bucharest. All that to come and more in the next half-an-hour.
:01:32. > :01:34.First, this week, members of the European Parliament have been
:01:35. > :01:38.meeting in Strasbourg for their regular sessions. What have they
:01:39. > :01:47.been getting up to? What has been happening around Europe? Here is the
:01:48. > :01:51.guide in just 20 seconds. In the week, the world economic forum means
:01:52. > :01:58.Germany as the best economic country in the world is to live in. But
:01:59. > :02:08.Angela Merkel faced more pressure over her policy with refugee. --
:02:09. > :02:10.world. Multilateral and international sanctions related to
:02:11. > :02:19.Iraq's nuclear programme are lifted. The EU steel industry cannot
:02:20. > :02:23.survive on public funds to survive, but, Chinese measures have not been
:02:24. > :02:30.dumped. Wants while and sets out a plan to lift France from a state of
:02:31. > :02:36.economic emergency. -- Francois Hollande. The EU criminal database
:02:37. > :02:41.is to include non- EU citizens to stop a Paris-style attack. And in
:02:42. > :02:48.the UK, 10 million homes received free Europe leaflets to vendors.
:02:49. > :03:07.Many kindly said they might return to sender. -- their doors. And
:03:08. > :03:10.I'm joined by Timothy Kirkhope and Tim Aker. Welcome to both of you.
:03:11. > :03:16.Manuel Valls says there is still a lot of work to do. But the Prime
:03:17. > :03:21.Minister has made a lot of progress. Really? I talk to people
:03:22. > :03:27.in Europe everyday. The feedback is very positive. In which areas?
:03:28. > :03:31.Especially in relation to freedom of movement. That is tricky. That has
:03:32. > :03:39.to be sorted out. He is making progress. Especially on the question
:03:40. > :03:44.of terms like ever closer union. That is making progress on the right
:03:45. > :03:48.kind of terms and agreements. Which way will you vote? I will see what
:03:49. > :03:53.the Prime Minister comes back with. If he can give us a positive
:03:54. > :03:58.outcome, and I am more confident that he will, I will support
:03:59. > :04:08.remaining. But for now, you would vote out? No, too I would wait to
:04:09. > :04:12.see. -- I would wait. It isn't just what Britain can get out of this
:04:13. > :04:18.deal, it is what happens from then on. If the other countries in Europe
:04:19. > :04:23.will take part in the process, that has to be good news for Europe and
:04:24. > :04:25.ourselves. If people like Timothy Kirkhope are being persuaded by this
:04:26. > :04:33.renegotiation process, you aren't going to his the many Conservatives
:04:34. > :04:38.back like him voting for Brexit. Sitting on the fence is bad for your
:04:39. > :04:41.help. I remember asking you last year why David Cameron is not
:04:42. > :04:46.renegotiating freedom of movement, you said it was the least of the
:04:47. > :04:56.many people are saying one thing at home and seeing a different thing in
:04:57. > :05:02.European Parliament. -- silly. He has not said anything about this.
:05:03. > :05:05.The ?20 billion we gave to the EU every year, about stopping that,
:05:06. > :05:11.there is no change in. It is shadowboxing. Will it be in June?
:05:12. > :05:16.The sooner the better. But Jim is wrong on some of the things he has
:05:17. > :05:22.said that the EU passports? -- Tim. It takes eight years in Italy to get
:05:23. > :05:29.a passport. Five here. You don't need your facts. That hasn't helped
:05:30. > :05:34.migration. We will talk about immigration zone. The EU is in the
:05:35. > :05:39.grip of a migrant crisis and it isn't about to go away. This week
:05:40. > :05:46.the IMF predicted 1.3 million migrants could arrive in Europe
:05:47. > :05:50.every year. Manuel Valls has warned that Europe's migration crisis poses
:05:51. > :05:56.a direct threat to the future of the EU. There is evidence that Schengen,
:05:57. > :05:59.the passport free travel zone in the EU that the UK is not part of, is
:06:00. > :06:07.already unravelling. They are introducing border controls to stop
:06:08. > :06:10.those refugees getting through. In August last year, Hungary built a
:06:11. > :06:19.fence along the border with non- Schengen country, Serbia, stopping
:06:20. > :06:27.the railway used as a key stopping points. Similar things were done in
:06:28. > :06:32.Austria. Then Germany did so with Austria. The next day, Slovakia
:06:33. > :06:37.placed 220 police officers on it's borders with Hungary and Austria.
:06:38. > :06:42.The Netherlands temporarily reinstated border controls with
:06:43. > :06:47.Germany. -- its. In October, Hungary built a razor-wire fence along the
:06:48. > :06:50.border with Slovenia. At the beginning of the year, Sweden had
:06:51. > :06:55.checks on a bridge linking the country with Denmark. Denmark
:06:56. > :07:02.imposed order controls with Germany. Were joined by the Labour MEP, chair
:07:03. > :07:09.of the European Parliament's justice and fair committee. Shang is dead?
:07:10. > :07:17.It is in deep trouble. Manuel Valls is right to say this is a deep
:07:18. > :07:22.crisis. -- Shengen. But, what is problematic is that it is only the
:07:23. > :07:34.big countries with assets to do things about it. When he says the
:07:35. > :07:37.EU, the EU has limited assets. It isn't a big military agency. It is a
:07:38. > :07:43.bunch of civilians doing a job on minimum budget. It is the big
:07:44. > :07:54.countries that can do things. Whatever your view of the migration
:07:55. > :08:00.crisis, whether you in -- you think Germany is doing well. For example,
:08:01. > :08:06.the relocation on the boarded-up map whatever your view, it is the
:08:07. > :08:10.countries like France that will have to do something now to create
:08:11. > :08:14.integrity on the external border and to organise a compassionate
:08:15. > :08:19.response. Yeah. There is no other way out of this. Even if Germany had
:08:20. > :08:27.not done that we would have had a crisis of. Would it have been on
:08:28. > :08:30.this scale? Let me tell you... 80% of refugees in Turkey are living
:08:31. > :08:38.outside camps. -- crisis. Even if it was helping us now they would not be
:08:39. > :08:43.able to help. Wood quotas have been and efficient way to deal with this?
:08:44. > :08:48.-- Would. Let's say we would have still had large numbers of people
:08:49. > :08:53.coming from the Middle East and parts of North Africa. -- an. Quotas
:08:54. > :08:56.would have meant a regulated system that each country in the EU would
:08:57. > :09:00.have taken a proportion of number of migrants and then the Dublin
:09:01. > :09:04.agreement, where asylum seekers and refugees have to cosine in the
:09:05. > :09:13.country they arrived at, and Chang in would have continued to
:09:14. > :09:17.function. -- Schengen. We need to maintain basic principles we seem to
:09:18. > :09:23.have lost. I don't know if should be dismantled. I don't know. But I am
:09:24. > :09:29.saying, I don't think so. --. We need the nuts and bolts right. We
:09:30. > :09:32.need people who arrive at the external borders... We aren't part
:09:33. > :09:36.of Schengen... By the external borders are important to us. Can
:09:37. > :09:41.Greece and Italy cope with those numbers? No. They need more
:09:42. > :09:45.resources. That is what we would propose. Once they have helped there
:09:46. > :09:49.should be no question about maintaining that principle. The
:09:50. > :09:55.first safe country has to be the country that processes applications,
:09:56. > :09:59.otherwise it is chaotic. That is what has go on with a lack of
:10:00. > :10:08.resolve from other countries. Do you agree that the Dublin agreement
:10:09. > :10:12.should stay what? --. If your house is on fire you go to the first house
:10:13. > :10:18.to call for the emergency services, not down the street. The country is
:10:19. > :10:24.getting this influx are because the German Chancellor said come in, come
:10:25. > :10:33.in. Germany should pay up. Keana Grey with Yvette Cooper that it
:10:34. > :10:38.should be dismantled? --. There is broad agreement about Dublin. --.
:10:39. > :10:43.The condition they are talking about, scrapping Dublin, there is
:10:44. > :10:47.broad agreement here because it is natural to claim in the first
:10:48. > :10:50.country you are right in. If you take that away you need to replace
:10:51. > :10:56.it with some things. At the moment, they aren't coming up with that.
:10:57. > :11:02.What Yvette Cooper is saying is that it is now de facto. But, these
:11:03. > :11:07.freedoms are the heart of European matters. There is no point of saying
:11:08. > :11:12.it is dead without saying... Without it, is that the end or the beginning
:11:13. > :11:18.of the end of the EU? That is what Manuel Valls said. I disagree. I
:11:19. > :11:24.don't want that because I think it is valuable. The point about
:11:25. > :11:27.Schengen is that it has always had the ability to reintroduce borders.
:11:28. > :11:32.That is what some of the countries are doing. We come back to the nuts
:11:33. > :11:39.and bolts of Dublin. They were high ideas for a new agreement. That
:11:40. > :11:43.isn't coming until March. I am surprised about the speculation
:11:44. > :11:47.about Dublin. It isn't decided at all. I am convinced about the basic
:11:48. > :11:54.rentable of people being dealt with in the first safe country, it will
:11:55. > :11:58.be maintained. Even if Germany and Angela Merkel had not said,
:11:59. > :12:03.refugees, you are all welcome here, would we be in a totally different
:12:04. > :12:08.situation to the current one? There has been movements across different
:12:09. > :12:13.European states for border controls to be reinstated. But there is a
:12:14. > :12:19.crisis in the EU over free movement. Items deal waiting to see why David
:12:20. > :12:26.Cameron will negotiate free movement. --. I want to know what he
:12:27. > :12:31.thinks and why he isn't taking an opportunity... It is a basic
:12:32. > :12:34.principle. In normal certain starters, through trade and exchange
:12:35. > :12:47.of services and skills, it is absolutely vital for British
:12:48. > :12:51.interests. -- circumstances. People say once they are in the area, and I
:12:52. > :12:56.don't know how long it takes to get citizenship then they are free to
:12:57. > :13:00.move anywhere else. Refugees do not have freedom of movement. Remember
:13:01. > :13:08.that. All these refugees were being frightened about with scaremongering
:13:09. > :13:14.nonsense. Scaremongering! They cannot have free movement now with
:13:15. > :13:17.the refugees. That is not an issue. We will have to stop there for a
:13:18. > :13:25.moment the please stay with us. Relations between the EU and Poland,
:13:26. > :13:28.they have soured over controversial media and reforms introduced by the
:13:29. > :13:33.new government in Warsaw. -- moment. The party swept to power in
:13:34. > :13:36.elections last year. This week, the Polish Prime Minister was caused to
:13:37. > :13:42.Strasbourg to explain herself to MEPs at their monthly meeting.
:13:43. > :13:50.What could possibly make you think Poland's new PM doesn't fight the
:13:51. > :13:58.freedom of the media? PM, would you like the EU to butt out? PM? There
:13:59. > :14:01.have been protests in Poland because the government has sacked a lot of
:14:02. > :14:05.stuff from the state broadcaster, and appointed a load of sympathetic
:14:06. > :14:11.new judges to the Constitutional Court. European Commission is now
:14:12. > :14:14.investigating, using new powers to check that member states are
:14:15. > :14:18.upholding the rule of law. Let me show you how heat of this issue has
:14:19. > :14:21.become. Look at the front cover of this Polish news magazine, showing
:14:22. > :14:32.various senior figures from the EU, Martin Shultz and Angela Merkel,
:14:33. > :14:41.dressed as Nazis. In the Strasbourg chamber, the PM of Poland used it to
:14:42. > :14:44.make a case for her reforms. Our fathers and grandfathers gave their
:14:45. > :14:48.blood for our freedom, for us to be part of a united Europe. But they
:14:49. > :14:52.also spilt blood for the freedom of other European nations. For many
:14:53. > :14:56.decades we had to fight for the right to speak our own opinions, to
:14:57. > :15:01.fight the right to build our own state. We achieved that, and we not
:15:02. > :15:09.have that taken away. Her main tormentor was the leader of the
:15:10. > :15:12.Liberal group, who raised the spectre of Vladimir Putin. The truth
:15:13. > :15:18.is that Mr Putin does not like European unity. He wants to destroy
:15:19. > :15:23.European unity, and what is happening in Poland could help him.
:15:24. > :15:30.The man from the commission tried to sound calm, tried to... All members
:15:31. > :15:34.of the European Union have signed off their own tree will and ratified
:15:35. > :15:41.by the national parliaments European treaties. Thus entering into
:15:42. > :15:46.obligations as far as maintaining the rule of law is concerned. But,
:15:47. > :15:52.what about the party's Parliamentary allies, the British Conservatives?
:15:53. > :15:58.It is strange that they choose this particular issue, for example, when
:15:59. > :16:05.the growth pact was broken, they didn't use this. When Greece didn't
:16:06. > :16:08.play its role of defending borders, they didn't do this. But suddenly we
:16:09. > :16:15.have a Eurosceptic government and they decide to use this. For
:16:16. > :16:19.supporters of the Polish government outside, some who travel by bus for
:16:20. > :16:23.16 hours for this, it is a question of where power lies, with the EU
:16:24. > :16:30.institutions or with individual member states. How did it go, PM? If
:16:31. > :16:34.the commission rules that she is at the undemocratically, she faces the
:16:35. > :16:38.prospect of losing her right to vote at future summits. And she still
:16:39. > :16:43.wouldn't answer my questions, even the nice ones. The minister, did you
:16:44. > :16:49.have a good trip to Strasbourg? Well done for trying, Adam. Doesn't
:16:50. > :16:53.the EU have a right to investigate and look at what is going on in
:16:54. > :16:57.Poland? It does, it can have its say like any democratic chamber, but I
:16:58. > :17:01.think there is something untoward about dragging an elected PM to the
:17:02. > :17:06.European Parliament to put them on the naughty step and say, don't do
:17:07. > :17:09.this! The European Union has had its problems with democracy. We have
:17:10. > :17:12.asked countries to vote again sometimes, so maybe it should get
:17:13. > :17:16.its own house in order before lecturing other member states.
:17:17. > :17:19.Except all member states have signed up to the idea that the commission
:17:20. > :17:23.can investigate whether countries are upholding the rule of law, and
:17:24. > :17:27.it seems there are claims that the Law and Justice Party in Poland are
:17:28. > :17:31.threatening the rule of law and democracy. Does that mean you have a
:17:32. > :17:33.right to do what it is doing? The commission always has a right to
:17:34. > :17:39.investigate any allegations about treaties. So you supported? No, what
:17:40. > :17:44.I say is this, Poland is one of the most lively democracy is now. Since
:17:45. > :17:49.it flew off the autocracy of the Soviet Union and become independent,
:17:50. > :17:52.it has developed politics in a lively way. The last party in power
:17:53. > :17:58.certainly did not like the new party hitting an absolute charity. Since
:17:59. > :18:02.then, they have been trying to cause problems. I don't know what the
:18:03. > :18:05.answer is, but I do know that the Polish government seems to have good
:18:06. > :18:09.reasons for what they have been doing, and I frankly think the
:18:10. > :18:13.commission should investigate, but certainly the European Parliament,
:18:14. > :18:18.which is taking upon itself all of these clever investigations, based
:18:19. > :18:22.on the political approach, I think that is not the right forum for
:18:23. > :18:28.this. The reports are that the Law and Justice Party has replaced
:18:29. > :18:30.Constitutional law judges, and have tried to restore Poland to
:18:31. > :18:35.traditional values. Is that a worry? It is up for that Polish
:18:36. > :18:38.people to decide, it is not for anyone else who doesn't have a
:18:39. > :18:41.mandate to interfere. If the Polish people don't like it they will vote
:18:42. > :18:46.them out. The previous government was the one that stuffed the court
:18:47. > :18:50.with its own appointees. And that is the point that the Polish PM is
:18:51. > :18:54.making, but actually they are just trying to redress the balance,
:18:55. > :18:59.because the media and courts were packed with people from the previous
:19:00. > :19:05.government. Nothing wrong with that, is there? The problem here and I
:19:06. > :19:09.watched the debate is that many of my colleagues who feel that the
:19:10. > :19:14.commissioners have ruined this, as it did in Hungary, in addressing
:19:15. > :19:19.alleged breaches. The commission has a role, and we can do it and it is
:19:20. > :19:23.there, but does backfire when you have this kind of enormous theatre,
:19:24. > :19:29.where she got the last word, by the way. She put her hand up and said,
:19:30. > :19:34.please Mr President, can I have the last word for the sake of my nation?
:19:35. > :19:42.It has been a great play for the treaties and rule of law, and these
:19:43. > :19:46.breaches are of concern, alleged breaches, and they will be
:19:47. > :19:50.investigated by the commission. The commission ended up looking like the
:19:51. > :19:55.bad guys, she ended up looking like the heroine, and that is how it
:19:56. > :19:58.looked. Did it make you feel a bit queasy? I feel that this was
:19:59. > :20:03.probably not the best way to do it, this court of public opinion where
:20:04. > :20:11.you target an individual country. When they got Alexis Tsipras end it
:20:12. > :20:17.was like a show trial. They all get on their high horse... Does it have
:20:18. > :20:22.the desired effect? Yellow she is probably a hero. It has the opposite
:20:23. > :20:30.effect. She left happy and she came willingly. Timmerman's arguments
:20:31. > :20:40.were powerful. You sign up to these things, and there will be deviation
:20:41. > :20:45.from the law... But she comes... She wanted to come, that is the thing.
:20:46. > :20:49.Then you have Denmark looking at its asylum law. The problem is that you
:20:50. > :20:55.have many laws now that could be breaching treaties, so we have to
:20:56. > :20:57.get away of the commission examining it without making this kind of
:20:58. > :21:04.theatre, were it completely backfires. Now, it is time the
:21:05. > :21:07.latest in our series, Meet the Neighbours. Now we are looking at
:21:08. > :21:40.Romania, which joined in point 2007. Who would build a palace like this?
:21:41. > :21:46.The husband and wife dictated duo who ruled Romania for more than two
:21:47. > :21:50.decades. Now it is a country's Parliament, the biggest in the
:21:51. > :21:55.world, and apparently the largest administrative building on the
:21:56. > :21:59.planet. A tour guide role that the red carpet for me, after a mania's
:22:00. > :22:05.MPs gave us permission to film. The first thing you notice, it is like a
:22:06. > :22:13.museum for chandeliers. 5000 of them. It is sad that they got this
:22:14. > :22:18.idea of having this beautiful lights, there was a state visit in
:22:19. > :22:32.France in the 70s, when they had visited Versailles. And how about
:22:33. > :22:36.his and hers matching staircases? The steps were smaller than usual
:22:37. > :22:46.because the couple were quite short but like a big entrance. In this
:22:47. > :22:49.place, you can walk for miles. All that marble makes this the heaviest
:22:50. > :22:55.building in the world. Parliament is not sitting today, but Romania went
:22:56. > :23:02.through a political crisis last year. A fire in Bucharest nightclub,
:23:03. > :23:10.which claimed 60 lives, led to the resignation of a PM over allegations
:23:11. > :23:16.of epic corruption. Talking of epic, check out the ballroom. There is
:23:17. > :23:22.room for a Symphony Orchestra and you can get a sports car through the
:23:23. > :23:27.doors. How do you feel about this building and its vastness? I first
:23:28. > :23:35.thing that we didn't need such a building in those days. It was built
:23:36. > :23:39.with great effort, so that is what I need to appreciate for myself. The
:23:40. > :23:46.effort of the people who have worked for this building, as there were
:23:47. > :23:51.more than million people involved in this project. The urban myth is that
:23:52. > :23:56.Ceau?escu wanted the skylight to open so his helicopter could land in
:23:57. > :24:01.here. If he couldn't escape that way, there is always the spooky
:24:02. > :24:08.basement. Is it true that there is a nuclear bunker down here? Yes, it is
:24:09. > :24:12.true. Not only one, but two. Sadly, Top Gear beat us to it. They staged
:24:13. > :24:19.a rest and he once. And here is the last stop, the balcony with the
:24:20. > :24:24.specially lowered balcony so that Ceausescu looked nice and talk when
:24:25. > :24:28.he delivered addresses from here. Of course, he never did that, because
:24:29. > :24:33.his regime collapsed before the building was finished.
:24:34. > :24:36.That is enormous, that building! Do we underestimate how bad the
:24:37. > :24:42.histories of some of these newer members of the EU have been? How
:24:43. > :24:45.difficult it is for them to come into a club where there are
:24:46. > :24:49.countries like Britain, France and Germany? Yes, but the interesting
:24:50. > :24:53.thing is to see them recreating their history. I have noticed that
:24:54. > :24:57.particularly, people talking about the EU becoming a single block. As
:24:58. > :25:00.long as we have countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and
:25:01. > :25:04.Romania coming in, throwing off the Russian history and in some cases
:25:05. > :25:10.the German history before it, and creating their own real history
:25:11. > :25:13.again, and pride in their country, I think that is a good safeguard. Is
:25:14. > :25:18.it realistic to have countries that are so wide apart when the disparity
:25:19. > :25:25.seems to be so huge, not just in economic terms but in cultural terms
:25:26. > :25:29.as well? I was four when the Berlin Wall came down and I can't imagine
:25:30. > :25:32.the horrors of living under communism. I think whatever we have
:25:33. > :25:37.now is better than what they went through. If the people wanted to
:25:38. > :25:43.join the EU, that is for them, it is for the people to decide. It is
:25:44. > :25:48.variety, which I think is a good and positive thing about the EU. That is
:25:49. > :25:49.all we have time for, thank you to both of my