Tsipras: Europe's cohesion judged by its ability to face all parallel crises with solidarity
He underlined that Europe's cohesion is judged by its ability to face all the parallel crises with solidarity and effectiveness; economic crisis, refugee crisis and the external and internal security crisis, with the upsurge of terrorism.
Tsipras sent the message that "Europe à la carte, that some of our partners unfortunately support, in reality means "'non-Europe'", and stressed that "the common house has also common obligations", "and not à la carte obligations."
The prime minister stated that the Euromed countries share common experiences and face common challenges:
a) we have suffered disproportionately from the economic crisis and the austerity policy options, the degradation of work and the deconstruction of the welfare state.
b) we are in the first line of Schengen and experiencing the pressure of migration and refugee flows.
c) we have borders with the destabilized wider region of North Africa and the Middle East. We have all the positive features and all the difficulties that have to do with the fact that we live in a blessed part of the world, which was always an area of tensions and conflicts.
Therefore, he stressed, "we have a common interest to work together in order to promote common initiatives and priorities at European level."