Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-09-23

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] PM Tsipras to present Greek positions on migration crisis at Vienna mini-summit

[02] Economy minister calls for temporary suspension of TTIP negotiations

[01] PM Tsipras to present Greek positions on migration crisis at Vienna mini-summit

According to government sources, Greece has a clear agenda that it presented during the United Nations meetings on migration in New York and would open on a European level on Saturday.

The summit was convened by Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern and brings together the heads of state and government of Germany, Greece, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia, Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Serbia. Also to attend are European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos and the European Council President Donald Tusk.

The Greek prime minister's contribution to the summit meeting is expected to be particularly significant, as one of the countries directly affected by the crisis.

Speaking to an Austrian newspaper on Friday, Kern noted that Greece was still able to cope at present but the pressures from the crisis will continue to grow and Europe has to examine how it can help. He said the meeting will make an effort to accelerate EU decisions and seek joint solutions for securing the borders, not just in Greece. Another goal at the meeting will be to draw up a precise report on what is happening along individual sections of the borders and what kind of support is needed there, he said.

Greek government sources said the prime minister will emphasise that the refugee issue posed a major threat of destabilisation and humanitarian crisis in 2015, whereas the foundations for managing the crisis had now been laid and it was clear what policies worked and what needed to be done. For this reason, they added, the prime minister will "draw a line" and stress that there is no point in making this a global issue, if states are going to then raise fences to keep refugees away and trap them in other countries.

Regarding the EU-Turkey agreement, the government estimated that all members should meet their commitments and added that the implementation of the agreement also depends on the Greek-Turkish relations. In general the government considers positive the dialogue with Turkey even if there are some divergences in certain issues and supports Turkey's accession process, as well as the visa issue if the criteria are met.

In Vienna, Tsipras will be able to highlight the challenge facing Greece due to the migration crisis, noting that 60,000 refugees and migrants were now trapped in the country since its northern borders were unilaterally closed. He is also expected to make clear that if Greece fails in its efforts to cope with the crisis, only the most xenophobic, nationalist and far-right forces in Europe stand to gain, as reflected in elections and polls in Austria and neighbouring countries.

[02] Economy minister calls for temporary suspension of TTIP negotiations

Stathakis said that no progress has been made on sensitive European issues concerning reciprocity in the liberalization of public procurement, shipping issues, farm products with a geographical indication, protection of consumers against genetically modified products, and complex environmental protection issues.

He said TTIP is a major political issue for the European Union and that there are numerous open issues. "We need a new framework for the negotiations, a new start on a new basis and the right timing," he added.

The meeting in Bratislava discussed the liberalisation of trade with some of the EU's major trading partners, in particular the USA and Canada. Ministers also addressed the issue of how to modernise the EU's current legislative framework of trade defence instruments against unfair trade and the expiry of certain provisions of China's WTO Accession Protocol with regard to granting market economy status to China.

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