Press Releases

Your Excellency the President of the House of Representatives Ms Annita Demetriou

Dear fellow Ministers Notis, Fernando, and Byron

Dear Vit, Chairperson of the Internal Affairs Council of the Czech Presidency

Dear Ambassadors

Dear Deputy Head of the EU Delegation in Cyprus,

Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cyprus

First of all, allow me to convey to you the apologies of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Cyprus who cannot be with us tonight, as he participates at the informal meeting of the European Council in the Czech Republic. The Presidency is represented by Her Excellency, the President of the House of Representatives and we would like to express our gratitude for her presence with us today.

I welcome the whole team of the MED5 and the delegates to Cyprus, in the beautiful region of Pafos, in the area of the Akamas National Park. We, the European family of the MED5, in recent years have been sharing common challenges, concerns and we have been claiming our common interests to the EU.

I welcome you today at a time when, additionally to the Ukrainian crisis, the predictions and indications of a new flow of migrants to Europe are more than certain, while especially in Cyprus, the problem has become suffocating as a result of the instrumentalization of migrants from Turkey, through the Green Line.

In the last 3 years, the 5 Mediterranean countries have formulated common positions and proposals. The need to protect the external borders of the EU, including the Green Line in Cyprus, which is not a border, against the practices of instrumentalization of migration by third countries such as Turkey, the prevention of illegal arrivals, the establishment of a common European return mechanism and also the conclusion of an agreement on the Common European Pact on Migration and Asylum, constitute our main objectives.

We supported the discussions towards reaching an agreement on the Pact, despite the fact that we were not in complete agreement on a number of important issues, such as the issues of solidarity and readmissions.

The cohesion in our common positions, shown by the MED5 during this period, has made our countries reckonable among our European partners and the European Commission itself, sending out the message that there can be no common asylum and migration policy that leaves the frontline Member States unprotected.

Dear friends,

Allow me to make a special reference and express my gratitude to our friend, the Czech Minister of Interior, Vit Rakusan, whom we have the pleasure to host in our Summit today. I have to highlight that it is with his valuable support that Cyprus succeeded in including the clear provision for the Green Line on the Regulation on Instrumentalization, which is expected to be voted by the European Parliament. 

Dear colleagues, dear friends,

I am certain that tomorrow, we will confirm our willingness to further promote our common objectives.

Welcome to Cyprus and I hope that you will have a great time in this idyllic landscape that we have chosen to host you.

Allow me to invite on the floor her Excellency the President of the House of Representatives for her own greeting.

(EF/EP/IK)