Migration minister Kairidis welcomes EU’s New Pact on Migration & Asylum

Greek Migration & Asylum Minister Dimitris Kairidis welcomed the agreement reached on Wednesday by the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission on the New Pact on Migration & Asylum.

Achieving “this milestone now allows for the rapid arrangement of the technical parameters too, so that the Pact can be adopted in time before the end of the term of the current European Parliament”, said Kairidis.

The European Union and its member countries “will now have in their hands a more complete legal framework, to be able to face the great challenges generated by the migration pressure our continent is facing”, he noted.

Greece “can feel vindicated – like the rest of the member states in the front line – from the conclusion of the negotiations, as several of its aims were reflected in the Agreement’s text, with one key conclusion being 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 highlight the migration situation and the needs that exist in terms of solidarity.”

At the same time, Kairidis pointed out, the EU “now recognizes the threat posed by the instrumentalization of migration, and it acquires tools to deal with its consequences.”