Minister:Integration of immigrants, a priority for Cyprus’ EU presidency

Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said today that the integration of immigrants into their host societies constitutes one of the key priorities of the Cypriot presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, which begins in July. 

”The importance that Cyprus and the EU as a whole attach to integrating immigrants into their host societies is reflected in the Cypriot EU Presidency, since this is one of our main priorities,” Sylikiotis said during a press conference on ”Activities encouraging mutual interaction and multicultural events”.

In this context, he continued, an EU Ministerial meeting will take place in Nicosia to discuss the integration of immigrants.

The Minister said that Cyprus after its accession to the EU, in May 2004, was faced with mass migratory pressures.

He said that the main objective was ”to have a policy framework that would incorporate measurable, and qualitative evaluation criteria in the field of employment, education, social inclusion and active citizenship.” 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.