The European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Mr Dimitris Avramopoulos, participated in an interministerial meeting in Athens today, with the Greek Minister for Migration Policy, Mr Dimitrios Vitsas, the Minister of Civil Protection, Ms Olga Gerovasili, and the Minister of Health, Mr Andreas Xanthos. The main topic was the coordination of migration management in Greece. After the meeting, Commissioner Avramopoulos made the following statement:
“These regular meetings with the competent ministers provide us with the opportunity to identify progress and delays in the management of migration in Greece.
The Greek authorities have undertaken a series of measures for the quicker processing of asylum requests, such as the deployment of additional Appeals Committees. The implementation of these measures must be accelerated in order to increase returns on the basis of the EU-Turkey Statement and improve the living conditions on the islands. For that purpose, effective coordination and the acceleration of the implementation of all pending actions is required by the Greek authorities.
The funding made available by the EU has to be fully used, including also to provide support to vulnerable migrants, such as unaccompanied minors. Effective cooperation between the all relevant authorities must be prioritised.
On 20 December 2018, the European Commission made available an additional EUR 289 million to support migration management in Greece, including for the purposes of winterisation, thus bringing the overall financial support to more than EUR 2 billion. The Greek authorities must urgently make full use of the available EU funding, in accordance with the European rules and specifications.
The Greek authorities are responsible for the implementation of the necessary actions for the management of migration. The European Commission has supported Greece financially, operationally and politically since the very beginning and will continue to stand by its side”.