Russia and EU do not want "Schengen wall" to separate Europe

Neither Russia nor the EU want a "Schengen wall" to turn into another Berlin wall to divide Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at a press conference following the Russia-EU summit.

The Russian leader pointed out that the visa problem was not caused by migration alone, but also by EU laws "stimulating the inflow of migrants".

Russia must also do a lot to solve the problem, for example to strengthen its borders and adopt re-admission laws, Putin pointed out.

The Russian Head of State believes the visa issue is "objective and both Russia and the EU are responsible for it".

"We do not want to deny the responsibility and ignore any problems on the way to a simplified visa regime. We are ready to solve them together, Vladimir Putin stated.

He also highly appreciated the work of Greece chairing the EU and pointed out that in this period Russia and the EU had made big progress in solving common tasks.

EU Chairman, Greek Premier Konstandinos Simitis, on his part, pointed out that no one wanted to create a "Chinese wall" around the European Union, but "Europe is facing a security problem".

According to him, "hundreds of thousands of immigrants want to come to Europe". He named Greece as an example, where immigrants make up 10 per cent of the population. Mr. Simitis stressed the need to ensure Europe's migratory security, to combat international crime and suppress drug trafficking and trade in people.