Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias will participate on Thursday, 8 October, in a High-Level Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean-Western Balkans Route. The Conference is taking place is Luxembourg, under the auspices of EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Immigration and Asylum, Jean Asselborn, on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The Conference will be attended by Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Home and Immigration Affairs of the EU member states, Schengen non-EU member states (Switzerland, Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland), the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Also participating will be European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Management Commissioner Christos Stylianides, and representatives of the relevant organizations of the EU, the UN in the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
The discussions are expected to focus on finding ways to support first-reception countries for refugees from Syria (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan) and transit countries in order to improve reception, registration and asylum processing. The Conference will also look at how to promote inter-state cooperation on combating organized crime and human trafficking, address the root causes of forced displacement, and engage with irregular migrants’ countries of origin.
October 7, 2015