Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, concluded on January 17 a two-day official visit to Greece, where he had a series of meetings with Hellenic Republic President Karolos Papoulias, Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos and Speaker of the Parliament, Evangelos Meimarakis.

Mignon called for greater European solidarity towards Greece to allow it to deal with the large numbers of irregular migrants and asylum seekers entering the country.

"Greece is confronted with a major problem of irregular migration at the very moment when it must also try to deal with an unprecedented economic crisis," Mignon said, adding that "only greater European solidarity, be it financial or in terms of receiving refugees and asylum seekers, can really contribute to solving this problem. A common migration policy is even more essential at a time when the region is facing major instability."

Noting that this is a European problem, the PACE President pointed out that the whole continent has a responsibility to ensure that the situation in the Mediterranean, already difficult to handle, does not become an out-and-out humanitarian catastrophe.