Mitsotakis welcomes progress on migration pact

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said that the progress achieved with the new European Union’s Migration and Asylum Pact is in the right direction.

“But this pact alone cannot resolve the migration issue,” he said, speaking in Granada, Spain, where EU leaders had met in an informal gathering.

“What is needed is a much more comprehensive approach, a greater activation of the entire European Union, of its institutions and its member states, to support the countries that lie on the Union’s external borders.”

Citing the EU-Tunisia migration deal as a successful example, Mitsotakis said that the same should be pursued with both Libya and Egypt, which hosts a large number of migrants.

“It would truly be a disaster if these [migrants] were to head towards Europe,” he said.

He added that “the same is happening with Turkey currently, to a certain degree, through a discussion is taking place in the context of improving Greek-Turkish relations.”

Turning to European integration prospects of the Western Balkans, he said Greece would continue to support the accession process of the Western Balkans countries and that that all countries that receive candidate status be dealt with under the same set of rules.

Responding to a question about the EU’s budget and the Multiannual Financial Frameworks (MMFs), Mitsotakis said that the European Commission has tabled a proposal which takes into account Greece’s concerns.

Greece is “asking for much more money for Ukraine, and rightly so, because we will continue to support Ukraine,” Mitsotakis pointed out. But, as he said he argued, the EU cannot be providing additional funding to Ukraine and much less to support natural catastrophes experienced by its own citizens.

“That is why I believe that raising the Solidarity Funding by €2.5 billion – within a revised total framework that exceeds €65 billion – is an amount that should not raise any major concerns. These positions are better understood at the European Council, even though we are not yet close to a final agreement.”

Finally, in reference to defense spending, Mitsotakis reiterated that the EU should not include Greece’s defense spending as part of the EU’s deficit calculation.

“Greece is a country that spends a lot on defense. But these expenditures have a European dimension,” he added, since the expenditures do not just serve national sovereignty but contribute to Europe’s strategic autonomy as well. [AMNA]