EU May Crack Under 'Intolerant Discourse' Amid Refugee Crisis - PACE Head

PACE President Pedro Agramunt warned that "demagogic and intolerant discourse" may pose a threat to the existence of the European Union as a community committed to the rule of law and human rights.

STRASBOURG (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova – The Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will focus on building Pan-European solidarity in order to prevent the European Union from disintegrating under the pressure of the current refugee crisis, PACE President Pedro Agramunt told Sputnik.

"The Council of Europe and our Assembly which brings together democratically elected representatives of 820 million Europeans is the appropriate place to build Pan-European solidarity and, as President of the Assembly, I will support this process during my mandate," Agramunt said.

The new PACE president stressed that solidarity must by a two-way process and warned against withholding it when it comes to sharing the burden of the refugee crisis.

"If demagogic and intolerant discourse is allowed to prevail, the concept of Europe as a community of states committed to human rights and the rule of law will begin to crack," Agramunt told Sputnik.

Europe is struggling to find a solution to a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.55 million illegal border crossings in 2015.