Filenews 21 February 2022 - by Frixos Dalitis
The Republic of Cyprus will be assisted in the management of all asylum and reception procedures and with generous EU funding, said The Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas, noting at the same time that there must be a large wave of returns because without the returns, of those who do not have the right to be on EU territory "we will not succeed".
He also said that in March he will visit Istanbul and deal personally with the issue of the causes of the origin of migratory flows.
This morning the Vice-President of the Commission will have a meeting with President Anastasiades and the Interior Minister. In the context of today's meeting at the Presidential Palace and with the participation of the competent European Commissioner, a new strategic memorandum of cooperation between the European Republic of Cyprus will be signed.
Mr. Schinas visited yesterday points of the Green Line, accompanied by the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris.
In statements from the STEK outpost at the entrance of Athienou, Mr. Nouris said that the presence of the Vice-President of the Commission and his associates in Cyprus is "the culmination of the last visits of European officials that we have had recently". "It clearly shows what we are asking for," he said, "the practical support of the European Union to the huge problem that our country is facing."
Addressing Mr. Schinas, Mr. Nouris said that "our country, Mr. Vice-President, you know very well, unfortunately in the last five years it is the EU Member State that receives the largest number of immigrants and of course this has created a very large burden for the Republic of Cyprus both in terms of management and of course in reception issues".
So we are here today in the border region of Athienou, said Mr. Nouris, "in one of the many places that are an open wound on the green line and through which dozens of irregular migrants pass on a daily basis, because very simply, as you can see, there is absolutely no obstacle to limit these crossings and this is something that we should manage in the best possible way, taking into account the burden that the country is facing."
It is for this reason, he said, "that we demand support from the EU both for the management of the green line, which, I would like to stress for the umpteenth time, is not our external border, but we demand yes, the implementation of management measures in proportion and in correspondence as at the external borders of Europe in order to limit this very specific problem".
At the same time and for the same reason and because we know the root cause of arrival of these migrants, the irregular flows, we claim, said the Minister of Interior "and we ask the Frontex service of the European Union, both the surveillance of the southern coastal areas of Turkey from which boats depart daily with irregular migrants, and the placement of a representative of Frontex at Istanbul airport to check flights, to occupied Tymbou, from which particularly African irregular migrants also arrive daily, coming mainly from the countries of sub-Saharan Africa".
The interior minister stressed that "we ask the EU to admonish Turkey to stop this instrumentalization of migration"."
On his part, Mr. Schinas said that "from the first moment I assumed my duties, since December 2019, I was convinced that no one can manage the EU's migration policy unless he is in the field, if he is not found where there is a problem, next to the people who manage it, and to the local communities".
I was in Evros on Shrove Monday 2020, I was hours later in the fire, in Moria, on again I went with the Pope, I found myself in Lithuania, but what I see here today on the green line, shocks me, he said.
The Vice-President of the Commission went on to say that "the perception of the problem from a distance is completely different from what I see here now". It creates, he said, "a big problem not only for the Republic of Cyprus, but also for Europe because here we stand there are two very important peculiarities".
The first peculiarity, he said, "is that as the minister's friend rightly said, here we are not standing on an external border of the Union, here we are in Europe and the second peculiarity is that while we are in an EU Member State, which due to its size and available resources needs to bear on its shoulders, an extremely large, disproportionate burden of responsibility for the whole of Europe".
My presence here, noted Mr. Schinas, "is not a symbolic presence, which shows that your problem is a common European problem. It shows that it should be the occasion for action, not for words. You know me. I have never been an advocate of a Europe of analysis, I have always been an advocate of a Europe of action."
So in this field now, the operational, he said, "we need to focus on a few specific elements of action." Firstly, he said, "to look one by one at the causes of these flows, and to deal with them both on the Turkish coast, and on Turkish airlines' flights and at Istanbul airport"." He informed that "with my previous contacts with the Turkish authorities I found that there is a basis of goodwill and understanding which has paid off in Belarus. I would like to believe that we will find a similar area of cooperation here as well."
Funding but also returns to their countries
The Vice-President of the EU, Margaritis Schinas, also mentioned that the second field of action which he described as equally important, "is that the Republic of Cyprus must be assisted in the management of all asylum and reception procedures with generous Community funding and the third element is that there must be a large wave of returns because without the returns of those who do not have the right to be on the territory of the European Union we will not succeed".
According to Mr. Schinas, "so in these three fields of action, tomorrow (today) at the Presidential Palace with the President of the Republic of Cyprus, with the Minister of Interior and in liaison with Brussels with the competent Commissioner and all the EU Services we turn the page in the management of migration, we sign a new strategic memorandum of cooperation between the Republic of Cyprus of the EU, in which the role of Nikos Nouris was extremely important".
"We are mobilising every available action, resources and service at European level, we have an action plan that will be the annex to this memorandum and from tomorrow we move on to the operational management of the problem," he assured.
He noted that "we need to stop working in Migration in Europe as firefighters. To run from crisis to crisis all the time. It's time to work as architects. A new holistic, coherent European framework for the management of migration and asylum".
"The proposals we have made are on the table, the negotiation is intensifying, the French Presidency has taken the negotiation very hot," he said.
Addressing the Minister of Interior, he said: "I want my friend Nikos, from here from the green line to ask the Republic of Cyprus to be a protagonist in this negotiation, I want you to lead this positive attitude because we need this great European agreement, as soon as possible".
"And it goes without saying, but I say it, I want you and the Republic of Cyprus to consider that in all these efforts I will be a supporter and helper, not just a friend", he concluded.
The gladiator of the mosaic "Margaritis"
The Vice-President of the EU will have a meeting today with the President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, with the Migration Issue in the spotlight. The Margaritis Schinas, who on Saturday attended and spoke at the conference on the future of the EU held by the "Glafkos Clerides" Institute, also met with the president of DISY Averoff Neophytou. At the working lunch that followed the conference, Margaritis Schinas talked about the long friendship that binds him to the president of DISY, to whom he expressed his support in the run-up to the presidential elections. He even remembered an earlier visit to Cyprus during which the president of DISY gave him a tour of Kourion. At some point, as he said, Averoff Neophytou opened a door and showed him a mosaic with two gladiators, one of the two bearing the name Margaritis.
