Brussels, 22/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - One of the priorities of the Greek Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in the first half of 2014 will be mobility, whether immigration within the EU or illegal immigration from outside, said Greek Secretary of State for European Affairs Dimitris Kourkoulas to this newsletter on 21 April. He indicated in an interview that Greece was planning to put the focus on the matters of greatest concern to citizens, namely growth, jobs, strengthening the structure of economic and monetary union to ensure it continues to deliver, and mobility. He said the third issue that is very important as far as Greece is concerned is human mobility, both within the EU and the problem if immigration from outside the EU and how this is managed at EU level. Greece feels this is a problem that cannot be solved with solely national action, so a coherent EU policy is needed, which is of interest to the wider EU and not just Greece. This is something citizens are worried about, he said, adding that the Dublin Regulation will be updated under the Greek Presidency. He said a common position was needed among all the partners. Greece says there needs to be greater European solidarity over the management of the Schengen area. There are EU policies for dealing with illegal immigration and while common action is very important, Greece feels the policies need to be strengthened.
Kourkoulas said there was plenty of time to fine tune the priorities and Greece was in very close cooperation with the other two Presidencies (Ireland and Lithuania) with which Greece has developed planned legislation for their three terms of office (1 January 2013-30 June 2014).
Presidency in a period of transition. The secretary of state said the Greek Presidency will coincide with a transition period for the EU with European elections in May and new political leaders. Kourkoulas said it would be a transition period and a time of reflection on the subject of Europe in which the EU would have to pull out all the stops to demonstrate to Europeans that it is capable of dealing with the current crisis, that it has the necessary tools (it didn't always in the past) to see off the crisis and guarantee the European model, adding that this was a priority for the Greek Presidency. He hoped Greece would be closer to emerging from the tunnel by the time of its presidency, noting that there were already encouraging signs and although the crisis was not yet over, Greece is more than half way through now. (CG/transl.fl)