Associated Press
"Greece will solve the Roma issue in humane manner," said the Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas. According to him, the migration policy of each EU country has ceased to be a national issue. It is governed by the common rules of the Union. He disaffiliated in this way with the positions of France and Italy that have already started the extradition procedures of the "imported" Roma people. There are also Romany people in Greece from neighbouring countries, mainly from Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.
Dimitris Droutsas outlined the foreign policy priorities of the country in the coming months during his first official press conference as head of the diplomatic office of Greece He announced that a special commission will be formed to review and update the foreign policy doctrine of Greece, so that it meets the global reality in the first decades of the 21st century. The commission will include diplomats, representative of the scholar circles and the National Council on Foreign Policy, which also involves the opposition.
The immediate interest of Athens and the Balkan countries remains mostly the 2014 Initiative as before. This is the time when the way of the Western Balkans to enter the European Union should open. Dimitris Droutsas acknowledged that he is very proud to have been the first foreign diplomat who visited Pristina and Belgrade immediately after the announcement of the decision of the international court in The Hague for the independence of the former Yugoslav province. He said Athens has made progress in the dispute over Macedonia's name since all blamed Greece for the failure of the talks under the UN auspices before PASOK took the power 11 months ago. He said that today all blame Skopje for that.
“We want to cooperate closely with Turkey and support its full EU membership, but it must meet all criteria," said the Greek Foreign Minister. The results of the referendum in Turkey over the weekend gave him reason to believe that this could be achieved with the present political leadership in Ankara. "The referendum showed that the citizens of Turkey choose European orientation for their country," added Dimitris Droutsas. He stressed that the top priority of the Greek foreign policy remains the solution of the Cyprus issue and that Athens strongly supports the initiatives of the Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias, including the opening of the port of Famagusta. The first diplomat of Greece described as completely unacceptable the presence of Turkish troops in a EU member country in the 21st century.
Minister Droutsas presented at the press conference his new team – the Alternate Foreign Minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou that will be responsible for the European Affairs, Spiros Kouvelis - Deputy Minister responsible for the economic and cultural diplomacy and Dimitris Dolis who will be responsible for the Greek diaspora around the world. Spiros Kouvelis announced that Greece will revise the NGOs it is cooperating with abroad. "Currently, Greece is cooperating with 800 NGOs abroad, while Denmark only works with 100. Obviously we need to choose the most effective partners," he said. Spiros Kouvelis announced that Athens negotiates with Libya for the debts of the Arab country to Greek companies. The Deputy Minister announced also that Athens will host the Arab-Greek Forum on September 24 and Thessaloniki will host the meeting of foreign ministers of the countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation zone on November 26.