Greek Alternate Minister for Migration and Asylum, Giorgos Koumoutsakos in a letter to the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, has called for an emergency and flexibility clause to be integrated into the new European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. The letter is co-signed by Cyprus and Bulgaria.
According to the letter, the aim of the emergency clause is to reinforce the frontline states’ capacity to effectively tackle exceptional migration circumstances, by activating specific preventive and response mechanisms towards potential migration crises.
Explaining this initiative, Koumoutsakos said that the “front-line states defend not only the national but also the European borders”. In view of this, he said that acknowledging these states’ right to a flexible response towards unexpected, exceptional, and extreme migration circumstances, would represent a proof of European solidarity.
“I hope that these justified concerns by the front-line states will be taken seriously into account in the new European Pact on Immigration and Asylum that is being formed,” he added.
SOURCE: Cyprus Mail
