During the informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers, the Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos raised the migration issue and the supportive role that the Greek Armed Forces assumed in order to address the issue.  

He underlined the need for use of biometrical data, so as to make more efficient the register and identification of migrants and their interconnection with data banks of international organisations’, such as the UNHCR as well as third countries that face the same issue.

The Minister of National Defence highlighted the need for register and identification of unaccompanied babies and children, who are not registered with the current system, thus suffering cruel exploitation.  

His proposal for the combating of the migration issue was adopted by the Ministers of Defence of Austria and Slovenia. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, said that she shall include this issue to the agenda for the regular meeting of Defence Ministers scheduled for next April.

Among the other issues, the implementation of the political decisions concerning joint programmes for the development of European countries’ military capabilities by providing incentives was also discussed.

Moreover, a retrospect of military operations in Africa was made and the need to readjust the relative orders was underlined. The Minister of National Defence pointed out that the decisions of the Valetta Summit on managing migration flows should be included in these orders.

At the joint working lunch with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, directions were given for the drawing up of the EU global strategy, which will be presented by Ms. Mogherini at June’s Summit.