The EU has to “find the adequate resources” to fund “innovative” solutions to the bloc’s migration challenges, such as offshore migrant return hubs, Greece’s deputy foreign minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou has told Europe Today.
“If we decide to implement any innovative ideas (for migration), that means that Europe has to find the adequate resources,” Chatzivasileiou said, adding that the EU’s next long-term budget, currently under negotiation, could “provide a solution to the problem”.
His call comes as Greece and four other EU countries – Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands – look to speed up plans to set up controversial offshore return hubs for migrants without the right to stay in the EU. A recent overhaul of the EU’s migration policy, approved in June, allows EU governments to strike bilateral deals with third countries to set up the hubs on their territories.
Under the rules, EU countries are expected to fully finance the return hubs and may also provide additional funding, commercial partnerships, or other incentives to encourage third countries to accept such agreements. But with negotiations on the EU’s next long-term budget in full swing, calls are mounting on Brussels to also cover the expenses.
The mass entry of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has catapulted the issue to the top of the political agenda, with migration also becoming a defining issue ahead of key elections in several EU member states in 2027.
The group of five countries is set to reconvene in Munich this Saturday on the margins of a conference that 17 EU migration ministers and the EU’s migration chief, Magnus Brunner, are expected to attend.