Athens, 09/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - In Athens on Thursday 9 January, the Greek minister for public order and citizen protection, Nikolaos-Georgios Dendias, called on the member states of the EU to show more solidarity as regards asylum seekers and immigrants who cannot return to their country.
“The Greek Presidency is not examining the issue from a north-south angle. It is important to agree on the measures to prove that this is a partnership of states that must have solidarity between them”, Dendias told press. He stressed the importance of a “distribution clause”, of a permanent mechanism for distribution of the load between the countries - be it on the issue of asylum or that of immigrants from third countries who cannot return to their own country. “Strengthening the common asylum system can be achieved if there is a fair distribution of the load on the management of the flow and the security of borders”, he said. While underlining that the criteria for this distribution are “open to debate”, Dendias proposed GDP (gross domestic product), populations, and the surface area of member states, as well as the capacity of member states to welcome immigrants.
However, Dendias already knows that the issue is far from being settled and that the discussions will be tense. “We cannot be optimistic on this issue”, he admitted, stating that some member states are opposed to the principle of distribution or to the improvement of the Dublin II regulation (a regulation Dendias considers unfair). Nevertheless, time is pressing in his opinion, because in the spring, with more clement weather, the flows of immigrants could become larger.
Between 1 August 2012 and 31 December 2013, Greek coastguards arrested over 150 human traffickers and saved more than 3,200 immigrants. “We must improve the way Eurosur works in order to see how to resolve the technical problems”, said Greece's minister for maritime policy, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.
Dendias recalled that the Stockholm programme comes to an end in 2014 and he hopes to obtain an agreement in June 2014 on the continuation of the programme - an agreement which would be based, in his view, on proportionality and solidarity. Dendias also intends to work for the increase of European funds for the retention of migratory flows, and the strengthening of European policy on refoulement. He also highlighted the development of an early intervention policy, strengthening the fight against human trafficking and the protection of borders with third countries of transit and migrant origin.
Dendias, Varvitsiotis and Greece's minister of the interior, Yiannis Michelakis, reiterated that, while the goal is to reduce illegal immigration, the Presidency also wants to facilitate legal immigration in order to contribute to economic growth in the EU, “according to the needs of the market” (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)