Governor of Central Macedonia Apostolos Tzitzikostas in the debate yesterday, in the plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions, the European Parliament, in Brussels, in the presence of the competent Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Mr Tzitzikostas presented the positions and policies of the European People’s Party for the refugee – migrant issue, with particular emphasis on fair distribution of the burden of the problem in all member – states of the European Union, and sent a message to Turkey, stressing that the Turkish government can’t blackmail the refugee.
“Turkey needs more Europe than Europe is Turkey,” said the Governor of Central Macedonia.
At the same time, mr. Tzitzikostas underlined the firm will of the EPP to support the decisions of the Declaration of Thessaloniki, which were adopted unanimously at the meeting of the EPP on 16 September 2016 for the refugee – migration, which was organized with the initiative of the. The Governor described the positions expressed at the meeting of the EPP group in Thessaloniki and noted that “the way we will handle overall, as Europe, the immigration issue will be the legacy of our future and the generations to come”.
The Governor of Central Macedonia stressed that the refugee – and immigration issue is a european problem and underlined the need for acceleration of asylum procedures, in order to decongest the pressure on the host countries of refugees, such as Greece. “It is very important to run faster and more efficiently the procedures for the relocation of refugees across Europe, in order to decongest and strong pressure on the host countries”, he said.
Mr Tzitzikostas referred to the four solutions that have put the PPE for dealing with the refugee – immigration issue:
1.Tackle the trafficking networks and the creation of Zones of Safety.
2.Creation of centres for the reception and processing of requests for asylum outside the borders of the EU.
3.Protection of the borders of the EU with businesses where required.
4.Cooperation with third countries to tackle the problem at its root, and the return of irregular migrants in their countries.
According to the data presented by mr Tzitzikostas, in the last year alone, 2016, of 375,000 people have arrived in Europe, 351.000 from the sea, of 24,000 from the land, while 4.715 have died or are missing in the Mediterranean. Also, just over 13,000 asylum-seekers have been relocated out of a total of 160.000.
The Governor of Central Macedonia congratulated mr. Avramopoulos for the important work of the Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship of the EU.
The Apostle Tzitzikostas main rapporteur of the European People’s Party on the immigration in the European Parliament
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