Former PM comments on migration, EU
No country can manage migration without help, conservative former prime minister Costas Karamanlis said on Wednesday in a speech at an event of the Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance in London.
Karamanlis criticized the EU for not being so far able to formulate an integrated and effective policy on migration, noting that local societies should show solidarity to people in need.
However, “there is a line that cannot be crossed,” he added, noting that “issues of social cohesion, political stability and even cultural identity are already evident and will likely intensify further in the coming years.”
The former premier said that burden-sharing measures must be taken as a matter of urgency for asylum seekers already in Europe and emphasized that not everyone coming to Europe needs protection. “We have to be able to better identify irregular migrants and countries like Turkey must be made to fulfil their commitments.”
Karamanlis went on to describe Turkey as a “rogue state” in the wider area, saying it is adopting a revisionist view and criticized the Turkish army's incursion into Syria which he said will further undermine stability in the region.
