The Minister of Migration and Asylum, Dimitris Kairides, commenting on today’s historic agreement reached between the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, stated the following:

“We welcome the completion of the inter-institutional political negotiations between the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission for the adoption of the Regulations of the new European Pact on Migration and Asylum. The achievement of this milestone now allows the rapid arrangement of the technical parameters as well, so that the Pact can be adopted in time before the end of the term of the current European Parliament.Congratulations should be given to the Spanish Presidency of the Council and my Spanish counterpart Fernando Grande – Marlaska for his efforts that led to this positive outcome.

This development is the culmination of a negotiation that started in 2020 with the Commission’s proposal, but has actually been running since 2016. The European Union and the Member States will now have a more complete legal framework in their hands to be able to they face the great challenges generated by the migratory pressure our continent is under.

Our country can feel vindicated like the rest of the member states in the front line, since the conclusion of the negotiations as several of its aims were reflected in the text of the Agreement, leading among which is the creation, for the first time, of a mandatory mechanism of solidarity as well as the provision for an annual political debate, at the ministerial level, which will put on the carpet the immigration situation and the needs that exist in terms of solidarity. At the same time, the EU now recognizes the threat posed by the instrumentalization of migration and acquires tools to deal with its consequences.

In addition, Greece has ensured provisions that act as a deterrent to the overloading of the country’s border areas by pressures related to asylum procedures and has guaranteed that the national security factor will be taken into account when designing and developing infrastructure related to these procedures.

The new Pact will be a defining tool for EU Migration and Asylum policy.

Of course, it will be equally important, at the European level, the continuation of the policy of strict border surveillancepreventing the illegal trafficking of migrants and strengthening the effectiveness of returns, so that Europe as a whole can face the major challenges posed by irregular migration and at the same time meet the labor needs of the European economy with legal, transparent and safe procedures.”