Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis reiterated today Greece’s support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans in a teleconference with Slovenian State Secretary of Foreign Affairs Gašper Dovžan, in view of the upcoming Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2021.
During the discussion, which was held in a very friendly atmosphere, Mr. Dovžan presented the priorities and the preparation of the upcoming Slovenian Presidency, due to begin on July 1, 2021. In particular, Mr. Varvitsiotis expressed our country’s support for the work of the forthcoming Slovenian Presidency, stressing that it is a positive fact that Slovenia is taking over the Presidency of the Council of the EU since it is a country that knows the wider region’s particularities. In addition, he stressed the need to speed up the adoption of national Recovery and Resilience Plans and to ensure that there are no delays in the release of recovery funds. On the migration issue, the Alternate Minister underlined the challenges the frontline states are facing and emphasized its external dimension, which is inextricably linked with the internal one, underscoring the need to use all the EU tools available to increase migrant returns.
