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President Klaus Iohannis said on Friday that a discussion on migration had taken place at the European Council meeting, and that in his opinion, this was the first such talk on a "positive" and "confident" note. "Yesterday we had a discussion on migration and I must admit that it was the first talk on migration on a rather positive, confident note. We have good results on all migration routes, in the sense that this migration flow has diminished very much. This is due to both the efforts of the Union and the efforts made by some member states. For instance, Italy got highly involved, with very nice results," the head of state said in Brussels.
According to him, migration could bounce back to higher quotas and, in order to prevent that, a collaboration between the local administrations of the transit countries with the origin countries is needed. "We haven't exported the issue nor do we intend to. Migration is a fact. And if we have on the Mediterranean route 30,000 or 40,000 this year as compared to 300,000 last year, it is significant progress, but that doesn't mean that the situation is stable and that we cannot go back to higher flows. A lot of work needs to be done. Many times, an in-depth approach is needed, liasing with the local administrations in the transit countries and we want to achieve all these things. It is not easy and it will not end soon. I believe our generation will have this matter on the agenda almost-permanently," the head of state underscored.
Asked whether there is any fear that Romania might become a new route through the Black Sea, President Iohannis showed that such matters have been assessed in the country and there is no reason to worry about an excessive number of migrants. "Such matters have been assessed at home and those in charge with this migration phenomenon assured me that we don't have any reasons to worry for now. The fact that, indeed, we had this summer somewhat more migrants who came on the Black Sea route, it is known, there was enough news about it, without this showing a mass phenomenon, however. So, we are not worried that we will have an excessive number of migrants on the Black Sea route,'" the head of state specified.
President Klaus Iohannis participated on Thursday and Friday, in Brussels, in the European Council meeting, the main topics of discussions being migration, the Union's digital agenda, security and defence, the relations between the EU and Turkey, the North-Korean case. President Klaus Iohannis underscored, with respect to migration, the importance of monitoring the migration flow along the Eastern Mediterranean route, so as to improve its handling, according to the Presidential Administration.
