European Migration

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was due in Marrakesh on Monday for the launch of a two-day United Nations conference on migration. 

The political office of European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Friday issued a statement clarifying that a police officer who has been implicated in an illegal gold trading racket was only briefly employed by the commissioner and released immediately after his implication emerged.

Greek authorities are planning the transfer of thousands of migrants from overcrowded facilities on the Aegean islands to centers on the mainland, sources said on Wednesday as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held talks with visiting European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos about a new burgeoning refugee crisis. 

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos in Athens on Wednesday to discuss plans to improve the management of migratory flows, ahead of the informal summit meeting in Salzburg later today.

The Greek Parliament will decide on Friday whether or not to request the prosecution of 10 prominent politicians named in a bribery scandal involving the Swiss drugs manufacturer Novartis, in the final phase of a parliamentary inquiry into the case.

Europe's border and coast guard forces are prepared to help Greece manage a recent spike in migrant and refugee arrivals by land and sea, European Commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud said on Friday.

Notwithstanding a rise in tensions between Brussels and Ankara - recently exacerbated by Turkey's increasingly aggressive stance toward Greece and Cyprus - the European Commission will be approving an additional 3 billion euros in funding for Syrian refugees living in Turkey, EU officials said on Wednesday, Ekathimerini reported.

European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos filed a fresh request with Greece's Supreme Court to reveal the names of the witnesses claiming that the former minister and another nine political officials received bribes from a Swiss drug firm.

Hours after Parliament voted to investigate politicians, including former prime ministers, over allegations of bribery by the Swiss drugmaker Novartis, European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who was Greek health minister from 2006 to 2009, on Thursday accused the SYRIZA-led government of engineering a politically-motivated campaign to smear the reputation of its rivals.

In an exclusive interview with Skai's Istories (Stories) program that aired late on Tuesday night, European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, one of 10 Greek politicians alleged to have accepted bribes from the Swiss drug manufacturer Novartis, said he had nothing to hide and was open to being investigated so that the affair can be resolved.