Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will reiterate his position that the refugee crisis must be seen as a joint European problem and not as one that concerns only the country of entry when he attends the Valletta Summit on Wednesday and Thursday which will focus on action for migration

The summit will be followed by an informal summit of the EU member-states on Thursday.

The Greek government has two aims in the summit: to make clear that the issue of refugee and migrant flows concerns the EU as a whole and not just first reception countries – such as Greece – and that a comprehensive policy must be found to tackle trafficking rings. The government will also reiterate that refugee and migrant flows are caused by poverty in the countries of origin and regional crises and any effort to deal with the problem must focus on these causes. The issue is primarily humanitarian and as such must be dealt with at an international level.

The Valletta summit on migration is expected to recognize that immigration constitutes a shared responsibility of the countries of origin, transit and destination. The main topics of the agenda will be: 1) Tackling the root causes by promoting peace, stability and economic development. 2) Better promotion and organization of legal migration channels. 3) Strengthening the protection of migrants and asylum seekers, especially vulnerable groups. 4) More effective tackling of exploitation and migrant smuggling. 5) Closer and better cooperation on return and readmission of migrants.