Tuomioja said that in the Greek commissioner's meeting held on Monday, the ten-point proposal consisted mainly of police actions to fight human trafficking and crime.
"The root causes that are pushing people to flee their own countries are absolute poverty, severe human rights violations, and continuing conflicts and so on. When these are under control, we can properly stem the tide," Tuomioja told STT over telephone after the meeting.
Tuomioja admits that more policing is required. Although no real decisions were made at the meeting, many questions and ideas arose, which could be developed further on Thursday at a follow-up summit.
According to the foreign minister, there was a large consensus at the meeting that the problem is not limited exclusively to "front line" countries, such as Italy, Malta and Greece.
