European Commission
Malmström

Long discussion in the morning meeting with the Commissioners today about Greece. It is absolutely necessary that the Greek government and all political parties pull themselves together and accept the demands of the IMF and the EU, but of course we all feel a great concern for the social situation and the harsh conditions that the Greek people are going through.

This afternoon I attended a hearing in the European Parliament on Schengen. The Danish Minister, Morten Bödskov, the European Parliament Rapporteurs on Schengen, were there among many others. It was very interesting. The question of how we can strengthen the Schengen cooperation is extremely important. This involves both improving the evaluation, so that we in time can detect and correct problems, but also how we can set up a mechanism to prevent Member States from unilaterally and arbitrarily impose border controls. There are clear differences of opinion, especially in the Council, and now we need to find a constructive compromise. Read my speech here.

Tomorrow I’m going to Stockholm to attend a seminar on organised crime and the money involved. Participants in the seminar include, the author Lasse Wierup and prosecutor Hans Ihrman. I will also have a number of other meetings, including with Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask.

Today, the sun is shining over a stone cold Brussels. After a mild autumn and winter, snow began to fall heavily on Friday afternoon and the temperature has, as elsewhere in Europe, dropped dramatically. But rather sun and snow than gray rain.

I have just returned from a lunch with 15 ambassadors from Asia. We had interesting discussions about visas, migration, labour migration, drug smuggling and better cooperation between the EU and ASEAN. The Asian countries certainly have nothing to envy the EU on the economic front, but when it comes to regional cooperation, they see the EU as a great role model. A few years ago, I was in South Korea and met with liberal politicians from the region, and it was apparent how inspired they are by the EU and our institutions.

I have also met Enikö Györi, Hungary’s Minister of European Affairs. She is visiting the Commissioners in preparation for Hungary’s response to legal procedures regarding the Central Bank, the Data Protection Ombudsman and judicial autonomy, which is required by the Commission before 17 February. She explained how they intend to manage the various issues. I also took the opportunity to ask about the new media law. Several parts of the law have been rejected by the Hungarian Constitutional Court. According to the Minister, they’re rewriting parts, working closely with the Council of Europe. We’ll see if this is sufficient when we have received the formal responses.  We have, as I have written about previously, expressed serious concerns about several of the Hungarian laws.

While in Athens, negotiations between the government and lenders are now in a critical stage, while on the street, people are preparing to go on strike tomorrow. To be continued …

Today we received the news from Athens that former Vice President at the European Central Bank, Lucas Papademos, will form the new interim government in Greece. News that is welcomed – hopefully this will create some calm and stability. Both the EU and the International Monetary Fund have been very clear that no money will be paid to Greece until there is a government that supports the necessary reforms. Now we are also waiting to hear about who the new Prime Minister of Italy will be – and of course who will form the government of Belgium.

It’s been a hectic day today. I began the morning by talking at the European Integration Forum, an annual event organized by the Commission together with the Economic and Social Committee. The conference brings together representatives from Member States, government agencies, municipalities and organizations. The focus for this year’s Forum was on the role of the country of origin in successful integration and about circular migration. Then I rushed to a round table discussion which focused on borders and border control, followed by a meeting with a delegation of senators from the French Senate. We had a long discussion on asylum, migration and above all on Schengen. From the French quarter, there has been some criticism of the Schengen proposal I presented in September. The French think we go too far in suggesting that the decision to reintroduce borders should be taken at the European level. But it was a useful and constructive discussion.

Before lunch I also had a meeting with Alexander Bastrykin, who is chairman of Russia’s Investigation Committee. The Committee is tasked with investigating serious crime, and will report directly to the President. I raised the EU’s concern about the Magnitsky-cases and the murder of Natalia Estemirova, which the Committee is looking into.

The last formal meeting was with Torbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe. We tend to meet regularly to discuss issues of common interest, but as we haven’t seen each other for a while, the lion’s share of the conversation revolved around the horrible events in Norway this summer.

I’ve spent the day in various meetings, starting off with my fellow Commissioners.  The hot topic was growth, and of course the situation in Greece and Italy, among other issues for discussion. It seems that it will still take some time before the question of who will govern in both countries becomes clearer. We then had a working lunch with European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek.

Now I am going to speak at a conference on cyber-security. As Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet said: “When we built the framework for the web, we did not think about security.” Now, 20 years later we see how vulnerable we are.  And not just individuals, who can have our bank accounts or Facebook accounts hijacked, but also public services, who are extremely vulnerable to this type of crime. The main responsibility to ensure that the net is free and secure lies with the Member States and industry, but due to the nature of these often cross-border crimes, we also need to build capacity within the EU. We need, which I’ve written about previously, a European cybercrime center, but also a global strategy. The EU also cooperates with the United States in this area – we jointly conducted a stress test here in Brussels last week, to test preparedness for a possible cyber attack. The outcome of this exercise will be presented later this year.

What a week it has been: with the circus around the Greek referendum, then no referendum occurs; the lecture on Greece at the G20 meeting; Papandreou’s resignation; and now the formation of a coalition government.  It truly far exceeds your classic Greek drama. There is no denying, a coalition government certainly would have been helpful a year ago. Nonetheless, implementing the Greek reforms will require courage and leadership, and more than a little blood sweat and tears, and through this, the politicians must remain united.

Behind the Greek drama lurks a potentially worse one in Italy. The situation in Italy is very worrying and yet the Prime Minister appears to not really recognize its seriousness. The Italian economy is much bigger and more important than that of the Greeks. The Financial Times’ editorial this weekend sent a plea to Silvio Berlusconi, with the heading, – In God’s name go! There are probably many who agree.

After a week with fantastic autumn weather and some time off, Monday comes around again, with a full agenda and rain. A busy first day back included discussions with the Georgian Home Affairs Minister on visa issues and meetings with a number of journalists.

Yesterdays Council meeting with EU Ministers of Home Affairs in Luxembourg was lengthy – there was a lot to discuss. The most difficult issue was the asylum situation in Greece. Now, almost a year since the adoption of the Greek Action Plan, it is high time to evaluate what has been done so far. The Commission is, together with the Member States experts, the European Asylum Support Office in Malta, Frontex and UNHCR, actively engaged in implementing this plan. There are a lot of resources – economic, technical and humanitarian – that have been made available to Greece. I sent an evaluation team to Greece last week, the report of which was subject to discussion during the meeting.

Greece is unfortunately, at present, very much in the media spotlight. Yes, Greece has huge economic problems. And, yes it is also true that it is a country made up of thousands of islands with borders which are difficult to control, attracting a lot of migrants and asylum seekers. But the problems with the asylum situation in Greece are longstanding. For more than a century, they have failed to establish a functioning asylum reception and processing system, which has resulted in a situation where more than ten thousand people have been trying to apply for asylum in Greece, some for over a decade. The situation has worsened over the last few years – to the point where Greece now sees the arrival of around 400 people every day.

The evaluation report acknowledged that there has been progress in certain areas, for example, on the asylum process, in that more people have had their applications processed and the rate of approval has increased. But the humanitarian situation in detention centres in Evros, at the border to Turkey, is still dreadful. I have been there and I can tell you that it is unacceptable in an EU country to have people treated in such a way. And with the winter coming, the situation could get much worse. These people must have clothes and access to medicines. Another big problem seems to be the inability of the Greek authorities to use the resources that have been made available to them.

At the Council, we discussed how we can continue to support Greece. We feel great solidarity with Greece and want to help, but it is of course the Greeks themselves that have the responsibility to make sure there is progress.

Other issues on the Council agenda were: visa issues, the EU anti-drugs policy, the common asylum system, the Eastern Partnership and border control issues.

Late last night, or rather early this morning, the EU’s leaders reached an agreement on a package to solve the debt crisis. The banks which are holding Greek debt will accept a 50% loss, the EU bailout fund (EFSF) will be expanded and European banks must raise their capital to 9 %. It was very important that the summit could reach an agreement, and even if this it might not be a miracle cure, it is an important step in the right direction.

Something that has been clear for some time now is that we need to strengthen economic coordination within the EU. The debate has been between those who suggest we need to build new institutions to enhance economic coordination and those who say that we should use the existing institutions. Now it seems like the majority have realised that the Commission is already best placed, with the necessary expertise, to fulfill this coordination function, and that we don’t need any new institutions. The decision from tonight’s meeting to reinforce the role of the Commission within this area is much welcomed.

2011-06-24 The Swedish Midsummer tradition has just begun and the weather is -as usual – rainy. Every now and then there is a little sunshine. Just around this time of year I miss the ocean and the Swedish West Coast the most.

The EU Summit across the street has just finished. There were some tough decisions on Greece, which has to make serious efforts to reform its economy. Croatia is expected to become the 28th Member of the EU in July 2013.

Regarding migration, the European Council produced better results than I expected. A lot of the things that me and my colleagues have been working on during this spring are to be found in the Council Conclusions. The Member States reaffirm the goal of the Common European Asylum System by 2012 and they even mention in the text that achieving this is crucial.

The Commission is invited to go ahead with a dialogue for a Partnership on mobility with the new democracies in the Southern Mediterranean. There was also a big discussion on Schengen, but the final text is good. The text states the importance of Schengen and that it needs to be strengthened. There is a need for better monitoring and evaluation by the Commission and Member States in order to detect flaws and to provide better support for countries with difficulties. The Commission is also invited to introduce a temporary mechanism that could – under exceptional circumstances – be triggered, without jeopardising the principle of free movement of persons. The Commission should propose such a mechanism in September.