Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be highlighting the issue of immigration at a dinner of the EU Member State leaders, at an informal summit in Austria tomorrow Thursday.
According to government sources the Greek PM will stress that immigration is a European problem and as such must be tackled in the spirit of solidarity and shared responsibility.
During the informal summit Alexis Tsipras is expected to bring up the following points:
1. The need for a rapid upgrading of the European asylum service to speed up the examination of applications.
2. That the debate on the refugee cannot only concern internal security and the protection of the external borders, but also the impact on the countries affected.
3. The need to complete, without further delay, the revision of the European asylum system in the direction of solidarity and the need to establish effective mechanisms for legal migration from third countries and transitional relocation mechanisms, especially in crises such as Syria.
4. The need to address the root causes of migration and the need for substantial, developmental support for countries of origin in Asia and Africa: member states must draw lessons from the impact of EU foreign policy in recent years as a factor that has often worsened migratory flows.
5. The importance of cooperation with third countries and the organisation of a European Union-Arab League.
Tsipras is expected to support the establishment of the European Civil Protection Mechanism (RescEu), which will provide the member states with more means of dealing with natural disasters.