Madrid - Spain and Greece on Monday pledged to jointly renew efforts to fight illegal immigration into the European Union. Spain will intensify such measures when it takes over the EU presidency in the first half of 2010, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said at a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis in Madrid.
Spain will focus on strengthening the European frontier control agency Frontex and on seeking repatriation agreements with undocumented immigrants' countries of origin, Zapatero said.
The agreements should also include cooperation programmes to promote the social and economic development of the countries in question, in order to discourage their citizens from seeking better lives abroad, Zapatero said.
Karamanlis proposed a European coast guard to improve maritime surveillance.
Spain and Greece were among the European countries most concerned by the influx of immigrants across the Mediterranean, Zapatero said.
