Filenews 27 February 2022 - by Nikoletta Kourousi
The assurance that Cyprus will not be left without assistance in the management of large migratory flows was given for our island, where he was on an official visit, by the Vice-President of the European Commission for the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas.
In an interview with "F", he analyzed the three axes of the Memorandum of Understanding, signed with Cyprus and pointed out: "We will talk with the countries of origin from Africa and transit, namely Turkey, in order to make them jointly responsible for the problem. We will significantly strengthen the CCT with resources, money, expertise, assistance to better manage the flows both on the green line and in the reception centres, while we will undertake together with our member states to organize returns from Cyprus of all those who have no reason to be in the EU.
On Ankara's role in the refugee issue, he argued that it is in the process of investigating whether there is a "tooling of the problem or a lack of control", underlining that "Turkey, like all its neighbours, must know that they have a much greater interest in working together with Europe on migration than against Europe".
At the same time, he defended the European Union's attitude towards Turkey on the issue of sanctions, considering that the "carrot and stick" approach is more effective in the case of Ankara and noting: "I am not sure that a pure sanctions policy would be in Europe's interest, since it would also create counter-movements. But everything is on the table, we just have to have the ability to adapt our action to the specific circumstances."
Regarding the recent developments in Ukraine, the European Vice-President pointed out that "Russia has constructed this crisis and is responsible for the current escalation", while he warned that "if Moscow continues to escalate the crisis it has caused, we are ready to respond with additional measures".
He also did not fail to refer to the EU's energy independence from Russia, referring to the role of the Eastern Mediterranean and green energy, while adding: "why not, as we did with vaccines, to start acting collectively in energy markets as Europe".
In conclusion, he expressed the conviction that the issue of European Strategic Autonomy will move forward.
