“Europe is facing an unprecedented migratory crisis and Italy is at the frontline. But Italy cannot manage this alone. We have to work all together to develop and implement European solutions.” stated Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos at the Constitutional Affairs and European Affairs Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate of the Italian Parliament

Mr. Avramopoulos thanked Italian MPs who gave him “the opportunity to discuss the state of implementation of the measures adopted so far to better manage the migratory flows” and highlighted that “The figures speak for themselves: the overall number of arrivals since January 2015 amounts to over 850.000. As a frontline Member State, Italy knows well what it means to cope with a high inflow of refugees on a daily basis.”

Referring to EU Commission’s role in refugee issue, he said that “European Commission is fully committed to finding a truly European and comprehensive solution to this challenge. One that balances responsibility and solidarity”.

He also added: “This is why our efforts in the past months have been focused on delivering  practical solutions on the ground and on delivering on the new vision contained in the European Agenda on Migration” while he continued presenting some concrete examples.

“Following the example of the Italian Operation Mare Nostrum, we tripled Frontex presence at sea, by increasing the resources and assets available for Frontex Joint Operations Poseidon and Triton. This measure has contributed to saving hundreds of thousands of human lives.” he said.

Mr. Avramopoulos concluded saying “The Commission, together with Italy and Greece, is now working at full speed to implement the hotspot and relocation system. Two hotspot areas are now operational, (Lampedusa in Italy, and, to some extent, Lesvos in Greece) and 160 persons in need of international protection have already been relocated from Italy (130) and Greece (30) to Finland, Sweden, France, Luxembourg, Germany and Spain. This is a first step but you will agree with me that it is not enough” adding that “We have to speed up the roll out of the hotspots both in Italy and in Greece. We urgently have to increase the number of migrants relocated”.