Former Mayor of Athens and EPP Member of the European Committee of the Regions, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos addressed the plenary session of Europe's local and regional leaders today in a debate on migration. The Members of the EPP Group were happy to continue the key debate with the Commissioner following the September EPP-CoR conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, titled "the role of the EU's regional and local authorities in addressing the refugee crisis: our common challenge, our collective response".
"The European Commission is at the forefront when it comes to the difficult task of coordinating a Common European answer to this major challenge. But you are not alone. You can trust on regional and local authorities who assuredly share our concerns," stated Markku Markkula, President of the European Committee of the Regions in his welcoming speech.
Commissioner Avramopoulos stressed his experience of the challenges on the ground: "the local and regional authorities are confronted with a huge pressure from this phenomenon and you play a crucial role in implementing our policy. Together we can do a lot and I count on your support - as you can count on me as I know how complex your mission is on the ground." The Commissioner also told the Members that the Commission is preparing a set of dedicated events in 2017 for local and regional authorities on access to finance.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia and the host of the Thessaloniki Conference, delivered the Group's strong commitment to the topic: "the way we handle migration today will remain a legacy for future generations. Our actions must be guided by our values: human dignity and solidarity combined with responsibility – and not fear and rejection. All Member States should take part in sharing the burden from migration according to their capabilities and solidarity and the necessary economic support as well as direct access to funds are crucial to local and regional authorities."
Olgierd Geblewicz, Rapporteur on the Legal Migration opinion, highlighted that "undoubtedly migration is a multidimensional phenomenon and migration policies need to be effective and intelligent. Legal migration plays an important role in lowering the influx of illegal migrants into the EU, while at the same time it helps to reduce shortages of highly qualified personnel in our labour market."
Paweł Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdańsk, brought to the discussion the experiences from Poland's regions and cities on economic migration and the integration programmes his city took to answer the current challenges, calling for action: "the humanitarian crisis will not come to an end this year or the next and whatever the protection of our borders is, the problem will remain and come back again and again".
EPP-CoR Thessaloniki Declaration
