ATHENS — The European Commission's plan for the new Treaty for Migration has "some good points, however, it does not resolve the problems of the first reception countries," underlined Alternate Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos speaking at Economist's conference in Athens on Thursday.

Some of the problems of the new plan were: the proposal for the allocation of the weight of the returns "which is an interesting idea but has many gaps in terms of its implementation, the creation of a solidarity mechanism for the first reception countries when there are increased flows, something that was requested by Greece and was approved, but we saw that in practice this solidarity passes through many bureaucratic and difficult procedures and finally, the safety valves foreseen in cases of emergency for the protection of the first reception countries, something which is not effective and will not take the burden from us".

He reiterated that a tough negotiation will follow with Greece and the other first reception countries and that, in this negotiation, Greece will insist on three points. The mandatory management of the external European border by all as "we must share the burden and we do not only want funding and equipment", a stronger Frontex in order to have a European policy against the traffickers' rings and finally the need of a balanced and comprehensive, effective and cohesive policy for migration".