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Dear media representatives,
Thank you for your presence and your interest in today's Summit, where we had the pleasure of welcoming Ministers and high-level officials from Greece, the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Italy, Denmark and Malta. The Summit is an initiative of the Republic of Cyprus and is the result of bilateral contacts that I have been holding for some months with my counterparts in charge of migration and asylum issues.
The countries invited and participating today are our partners who share our concerns about the challenges arising from the intense migratory pressures faced by the countries of the European Union. At the same time, we share the view that conditions inside Syria have changed in recent years and should therefore be reassessed at the European level.
Common concerns require common action. To this end, at our meeting today, we reaffirmed the need to identify and implement realistic measures to manage migration more effectively. We recognised that migration is not an issue with only an internal dimension. On the contrary, there was a shared conviction that it is the external dimension of migration that shapes the facts.
In this context, we reaffirmed the need to focus on the external dimension of migration in the light of recent geopolitical developments in the Middle East region and in third countries neighbouring EU Member States, such as Lebanon and Egypt. Due to their geographical location, these countries bear a disproportionate burden due to the large numbers of migrants on their territories, at a time when they do not have sufficient means to manage them adequately. The position was shared by all eight states that the European Union should support these countries by offering technical and financial support and assisting them in their efforts to better manage the refugees on their territories from war-torn regions, particularly Syria.
A typical example is Lebanon, a country where social, economic and political instability prevails and where some two million Syrian nationals live, adding to an already difficult situation. Amid the unstable conditions created by the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the visible risk of an escalation and expansion of the conflict in the region, Lebanon's support is imperative. As Cyprus, we have been warning in our interventions since last summer that if Lebanon is allowed to collapse, the consequences for the entire European Union will be incalculable.
The recent announcement of the financial support package for the country, following a joint visit by the President of the European Commission and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, is undoubtedly welcomed as a step in the right direction. As Member States, we expect that the Commission will soon proceed with the conclusion of an agreement with Lebanon, in a similar way as it did recently with Egypt and previously with Tunisia.
In addition to the support that the European Union provides to neighbouring third countries, it is equally important to address the root cause of these challenges, which is the constant flow of migrants from Syria. I would like, at this point, to convey the clear position of all participants that we fully embrace the European value of solidarity and the principles of international and European law and are committed to ensuring assistance to those in need.
However, we cannot ignore perhaps the most tragic aspect of the migration issue, that of the instrumentalisation of migrants and the trafficking of people by organised criminal groups of traffickers. Putting thousands of human lives at risk, trafficker rings are making a fortune by exploiting people's need for safety. The Group of Eight supports the European Union's efforts to promote cooperation with third countries in order to combat trafficking rings in a coordinated manner.
At the same time, today's discussion shows a convergence of views on the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus to review the status of areas in Syria. After 13 years, the facts and conditions in Syria have changed. It is therefore time, as a European Union as a whole, to find appropriate ways to assess the current realities prevailing in Syria and, consequently, to redefine our position.
Without ignoring the complexity of the situation and the fact that stability in the country has not yet been fully restored, we share the view that we must speed up the procedures for taking all the necessary measures to create conditions that will allow the return of persons to Syria. Already, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has opened a channel of communication with the Syrian authorities, and therefore, as the European Union, we should support efforts to pave the way for safe, voluntary returns of Syrians in a way that ensures their protection and respects international law and European directives. This is precisely the outcome of today's meeting, as a group of Member States will now be able to push in this direction.
Finally, we discussed today the importance of the Commission's initiative to promote legal migration and the recruitment of skilled personnel from third countries to meet the needs of national labour markets. The successful implementation of this policy will undoubtedly be beneficial both for maintaining social cohesion and for ensuring the economic stability of our countries.
Dear friends,
Today's debate proves that the crisis created by increased migratory flows is not only a problem for the countries of the South. It is a serious problem that concerns all the countries of the European Union and requires a collective response. I am confident that today's Summit will trigger a further discussion of our concerns in the relevant European institutions, with a view to revising the European Union's approach for the benefit of European societies.
(MK/EAθ/NZ)
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