GREECE concerned over a new massive influx of illegal immigrants

Greek Defence Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos expressed, during the informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers held here, his country’s concern over a new massive influx of illegal immigrants from Arab and North Africa countries into Europe, in conjunction with developments in Syria.

In a statement he made after the meeting, Panagiotopoulos said that “we asked for FRONTEX to take more action both as regards financial and military means, to address this major problem.”
He also noted that “we also made other substantive interventions on other issues discussed as for example the military and other operations of the EU at the Horn of Africa. We raised the major issue of the security of the international shipping, which involves important Greek interests,” he added.

He noted that “we asked for the EU missions to continue and to have more substantial results soon.”
Panagiotopoulos said that both Greece and France have asked that a note be made in the records of the Informal Meeting regarding the fact that the NATO General Secretariat was not represented.

He also noted that he had short but very interesting bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the council with some of his colleagues from countries like France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Ireland and Bulgaria.