Margaritis Schinas

EU Commissioner Margaritis Schinas on Friday hailed the bloc's new rules for handling irregular arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants.

"For the first time, the European Union has a migration policy," Schinas said at the Delphi Economic Forum during a discussion with former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, moderated by Kathimerini journalist Xenia Kounalaki.

EU commissioner Margaritis Schinas said on Friday that the European Union could strike a deal with Lebanon to stem arrivals of migrants, as Cyprus complained it was being inundated by a surge in arrivals from the Middle East.

Describing Egypt as a "reliable partner" in the management of migration, EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas appeared adamant on Tuesday that the upcoming visit of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Cairo, accompanied by the prime ministers of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Italy, Giorgia Meloni, and Belgium, Alexander De Croo, will bring "substantial results."

European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas wants to recruit American pop singer Taylor Swift to "mobilize the youth" and reverse the traditionally low turnout in the European parliamentary elections.

The European Union intends to allocate an additional 2 billion euros by 2027 for the implementation of the new pact on migration and asylum, European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas during a migration conference in Athens on Monday.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday commended the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, agreed by the European Union last month, emphasizing that the bloc's credibility is intricately linked to its success in addressing this challenge.

EU countries and lawmakers reached an agreement yesterday on an overhaul of the bloc's laws on handling asylum-seekers and migrants, officials said.

The European Union is in a "global race" with the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to scoop up skilled migrants, the European Commission has acknowledged.

"Europe is engaged in a global race for talent, the same way that we are fighting a global race for raw materials, for energy," Commissioner Margaritis Schinas said.

A fair and just European Pact on Migration and Asylum would mean "finding a way for Greece to not be bearing the brunt [of the migration influx] as a first-arrival country," SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has said in Brussels.

The continued incarceration by the Albanian authorities of an ethnic Greek who was elected mayor of Himare in May is "profoundly anti-European" and risks becoming a barrier to the "Albanian people's European aspirations," European Commission Vice President for Protecting the European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas has said.