Juncker visits Athens, is briefed on migration issues, metro extension to Piraeus

20:22 19/5/2014 - Πηγή: E-Typos

The European People's Party (EPP) candidate for the presidency of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker was briefed on migration issues and work currently underway to extend Athens' metro system, in talks with Greek officials during

his visit to Athens on Monday.
Arriving on the day after the first round of local government elections in Greece, and one week ahead of the European elections, Juncker went to the offices of the European border agency Frontex in the Greek shipping and Aegean ministry, where officials outlined action taken to deal with migration flows from the country's sea borders and the joint operations run by Frontex and the Greek coast guard.
He was received by Shipping and Aegean Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis and Public Order and Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Dendias, as well as the chief of the coast guard Vice-Admiral Athanassios Athanasopoulos.
Juncker next visited the coast guard's Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, where he was briefed on its mode of operation and its work.
During the visit, Varvitsiotis presented Juncker with a briefing document outlining the challenges faced daily by the Hellenic Coast Guard in terms of handling illegal migration flows across Greece's sea borders. This described the operational reorganisation of coast guard forces, with more personnel and law enforcement means concentrated in the border regions of the eastern Aegean, and also a record of a trend for reduced funding from Frontex and the need to increase resources under the new planning of the European funds.
A similar note was presented to Juncker by Dendias, who outlined the overall handling of migration flows and asylum seekers into Greece, with emphasis on action being taken, the cost for the state budget, as well as the financing gap from the relevant European funds for both the current and upcoming periods (2014-2020).
Juncker's next stop was the work to extend the Athens metro system to Piraeus, where he was accompanied by Development and Competitiveness Minister Costis Hatzidakis. There, the CEO of Attiko Metro Christos Tsitouras and Public Works General Secretary Stratos Simopoulos outlined the progress of the project being carried out by Attiko Metro to create an additional connection between the port of Piraeus and the metro system.
The project, which started in March 2012, is the biggest transport infrastructure project currently underway in the Greek capital and is expected to serve more than 130,000 passengers per day once completed in 2017. Budgeted at 730 million euros, the contractors for the line extension are a consortium of Greek and European companies.
The work is running according to schedule, including archaeological digs discovered on site, and is expected to be completed without delays, linking the port with two lines of the Athens overground and underground metro network, the suburban railway line and the tram network and creating a direct link, via line 3, between the sea port in Piraeus and the international airport.

PM Antonis Samaras and Juncker visit Acropolis Museum

The EPP candidate was also received by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras while in Athens, who accompanied Juncker on a visit to the Acropolis Museum, where they viewed the exhibits and panoramas of the Acropolis from the terrace outside the museum restaurant.