Besuch des Parlamentarischen Staatssekretärs Peter Altmaier in Athen
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Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos with his visiting German counterpart Peter Altmaier
Interior minister meets with German counterpart
Interior, public administration and decentralization minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos met Friday with his visiting German counterpart Peter Altmaier, for talks that were also attended by the German ambassador to Greece and Greece's Civil Protection secretary general Panayotis Fourlas.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Altmaier said he had a "very good and constructive discussion" with Pavlopoulos which focused on immigrant integration and Germany's preparations for its assumption of the EU presidency.
He said they also exchanged views on measures for disaster management in the EU.
Pavlopoulos, in turn, said they had a very useful discussion that included migration and civil protection issues.
Particularly on the issue of immigrant integration, Pavlopoulos noted that Greece and Germany have a common course with respect to the Greeks who lived for many years as immigrants in Germany and who now are EU citizens.
Having this experience and cooperation, he said, "today we are speaking of a course of integration of the immigrants we have in our country".
He added that Greece and Germany have many common points in this issue, because the goal was a more smooth, juster and more substantial integration of immigrants into Greek society.
"We also discussed matters concerning the legalization of immigrants living here illegally. I explained the measures we have taken. And, in this matter, we are ahead of many of the other European Union countries," Pavlopoulos added.
Another topic of discussion, the Greek minister continued, was that of civil protection, and particularly the relations that the EU member countries should have among themselves on the issue of natural disasters. "In other words, what cooperation there should be among the member states so that, when we face problems of natural disasters, the necessary solidarity and cooperation will function so that the problems we faced in the past will not be created anew," the interior minister explained.
Athens 8/12/2006 (ANA)
