EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REGIONAL SEMINAR : Europe's New Mediterranean Reality: Migration and Asylum in Malta, Greece and Cyprus
On July 1 and 2, the first in a series of three regional seminars on Europe's New Mediterranean Reality: Migration and Asylum in Malta, Greece and Cyprus, kicked-off in Valletta
A joint initiative of the EPIOs in Athens, Nicosia and Malta, in which several MEPs participated, amongst them Simon Busuttil, Louis Grech, Sylvana Rapti, Eleni Theocarous and Michail Tremopoulos, who were invited to speak at round table discussions with public authorities, academics, NGOs active in the field of migration and asylum and journalists. This was followed on July 2 by a study visit to the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Malta's Maritime Squadron responsible for co-ordination of search and rescue operations at sea between Libya, Tunisia, Malta and Lampedusa. Officers of the Maltese armed forces explained their role in central Mediterranean Search and Rescue operations, and the modus operandi undertaken during a typical rescue mission at sea. In the autumn, the successive seminars in the series will take place in Nicosia and Rhodes respectively
