Brussels, 28/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is willing to give Greece financial support for reforming its asylum system which, as things stand, does not guarantee the right of asylum seekers to international protection, the European commissioner for internal affairs, Cecilia Malmström, said on Monday 27 September. “We are committed to helping and assisting Greece with money but also with infrastructure and know-how to build a modern system” of asylum, the commissioner stressed after a meeting in Athens with the Greek minister for the protection of citizens, Christos Papoutsis. “We are speaking of quite a big sum from different programmes”, she added, specifying that this will be a special budget given the important effort that Greece has to provide. “We hope that the reform process will start as soon as possible”, she said, adding that Greece had undertaken to carry out the process in partnership with the HCR (UN high commissioner for refugees). “The sooner it is done, the less suffering there will be”, the commissioner said. She is also to meet Prime Minister Georges Papandreou on Tuesday, before her departure. In a joint press release, Malmström and Papoutsis undertake to strengthen their cooperation on reform of the Greek asylum system. They say they both recognise the “unprecedented pressure” on the Greek asylum systems and on migration management, due to the large number of migrants arriving in the country and the country's specific geographic position in Europe. “The European Commission greatly values the strong commitment of the Greek government to undertake all possible efforts and considers that it is paramount to make rapid progress in improving the situation”, the press release underlines. In addition to EU financial aid, several member states said they were willing to help Greece by providing assistance, especially through practical cooperation. Concrete measures are to be triggered in coming weeks. Last week, the HCR had called on the EU to help Greece, considering it was faced with a “humanitarian crisis” given the number of asylum seekers arriving on its territory. Having received 16,000 first requests in 2009, Athens only granted refugee status to 0.3% of those seeking asylum, against an average 31% rate in Europe, while 46,000 requests are still pending and have been pending for years. Malmström also said that the Commission planned to “continue in its effort” for cooperation with the Belgian Presidency to circumvent the opposition of member states to reform of the Dublin Regulation, which makes it an obligation for asylum requests to be processed in the country where the asylum seekers first arrive. (See EUROPE 10215). (B.C./transl.jl)