Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Progress report on the implementation of the hotspot approach in Greece

As part of the immediate action to assist Member States facing intense migratory pressures at the EU’s external borders, the European Agenda on Migration adopted in May 2015 set out a new hotspot approach. Greece and Italy are the two Member States where this hotspot approach is currently being implemented.

Under this approach, all relevant EU Agencies and experts from Member States work on the ground with national and local authorities to help the Member States concerned to fulfil their obligations under EU law. Five key areas have been identified: establishing functional hotspots, implementing the relocation decisions, ensuring the effective return of migrants not entitled to international protection, improving border management, and creating sufficient and adequate reception capacity.

In September 2015, the Commission took this one step further by outlining the priority actions for the EU to address the refugee crisis. These included the full rollout of the relocation scheme and migration management support teams working in 'hotspot' areas. The Commission followed this up with a report on the state of play in October. This included detailed information on the next steps needed in the key areas, including specific actions to be implemented by Greece. In December, the Commission issued a detailed report on the implementation of the hotspot approach in Greece in the five areas mentioned above.

On 10 February 2016, the Commission reported on the overall implementation of the priority actions, and annexed a state of play report on Greece. The annex to this report updates the 10 February analysis, taking stock of the implementation of the priority actions in the five areas set above and the steps which remain to be taken.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Hotspots and emergency relocation: State of play http://www.europeansources.info/record/hotspots-and-emergency-relocation-state-of-play/

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