Press Releases

The 5^th Southern EU Countries Summit was held today, 29 January 2019, at the Filoxenia Conference Center, in Lefkosia. The Summit was hosted by the President of the Republic, Mr Nicos Anastasiades, with the participation of the President of the Republic of France, Mr Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Ministers of the Republic of Malta, Mr Joseph Muscat, the Hellenic Republic, Mr Alexis Tsipras, the Republic of Italy, Mr Giuseppe Conte, the Republic of Portugal, Me Antonio Costa, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain, Mr Josep Borrell Fontelles.

Following the deliberations of the Summit, the six Heads of State and Government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain, made statements to the Press.

Speaking in Portuguese, through interpretation in English, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Portugal, Mr Antonio Costa, said:

“First of all, I would like to thank the President of Cyprus, Mr Nicos Anastasiades, for his excellent hospitality extended to us. I would like to thank my colleague Joseph Muscat for his invitation to host the next Summit in Malta.

I would like to say that we discussed here two fundamental points. The question of the reform of the EU, as well as migration. Migration has become a problem for all of us in Europe. There is a need for an integrated response to these problems, because we must avoid immigration to begin something separating and divide European countries and that it has become a great disappointment for the citizens of Europe. I am very happy to see that we share a global vision. We define as a priority the need to hold a dialogue with the countries of origin and thus to help them from an economic point of view, so that the people will be able to find themselves in a better situation.

We believe in the principle of solidarity and responsibility, because let us remember that every and each boat that arrives in Italy is not a problem only for Italy. It is a problem for everyone in Europe. There is a need for solidarity. This is a way to view migration. It is a structural problem. We will have to live with it in the future years. It is important for all of Europe to understand this and thus there is a need to support the African continent. This is why the future Portuguese Presidency in 2021 will take into account very strongly, the need for more cooperation between the European Union and Africa. There is a need for a permanent mechanism of solidarity to deal with the emergency situations when they arise. This mechanism must be very clear, very well-defined so that all the member states of the EU participate, according to their capacities and needs. And it is important to use all our creativity we can come up with, with the right definition, the right formulation of this help on the part of each and every state of the EU.

Secondly, many of the Southern European countries have suffered a financial and economic crisis as we know. And today the EU, on the other hand, is growing, it is developing, it is creating new jobs. This economic recovery project is something that is going now. But there are cycles in the economy and we have to remember that maybe a negative cycle is in the near future. We need to go ahead with what we have begun concerning the reform in Europe. Europe on the other hand is more prepared today than it was back in 2008, undoubtly.

But in June, we will need to discuss concrete projects concerning the Eurozone budget to deal with emergencies, and we need new mechanisms of stability in the Eurozone to safeguard all of Europe. This is the mandate that the Eurogroup has given during the last Council in December. And this is something we should all work together. We have to continue to work on this and if we help the Eurozone this would be a great contribution to the whole of the EU, so that we will be able to comply with our missions in the world, so that there is more solidarity and development and thus be able to go ahead with the objective of the Millenia which have been defined by the United Nations.

It is important to comply with the decision taken by the Security Council of the UN, which of course referred to the need for the reunification of Cyprus and certainly hope that this will be true in the near future. And let me tell my colleague, Mr Anastasiades, that we certainly hope that this year will be the year the Cyprus problem will be finally resolved”.

(MKY)