ROME (ANA/Th. Andreadis) - Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, answering an Athens-Macedonian News Agency's question during his interview at the Foreign Press Association of Rome, referred to the common challenge of migrants and refugees faced by Italy and Greece. More specifically, he stated:
"The Mediterranean is of key importance, as a whole. It is the sea on the Greek coasts, the Italian coasts, but also those of the Middle East. Greece and Italy raised the issue of migrants and refugees in a very dynamic way. They are the countries most exposed to waves of undocumented migration. It is not always possible to welcome everyone who wants to come to Europe. Because if there is no willingness to cooperate from other countries, these people sometimes stay in Italy and Greece. Whereas in reality, as it was the case with the survivors of the shipwreck in Calabria, we found that they want to move to northern European states. We raised the issue of migration and refugees and our goal is to achieve joint solutions and a long-term strategy. As for the European Summit in June, we want there to be European solutions, with initiatives that favour legal migration, but which prevent illegal flows."
The Italian Foreign Minister, at the same time, emphasized that his goal is to stop the boarding of migrants on smugglers' boats and that "Italy and Greece, alone, cannot bear the full weight of this whole phenomenon."
According to Tajani, migration and "refugees must be a main issue on the European agenda for all member countries, from Greece and Italy to Germany". He also underlined that "the Spanish rotating presidency in the EU can play an important role in this issue, but also the process of integration, in the Union, of the countries of the Western Balkans."