Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited Malta and Italy on Monday 21 October 2013 as part of an initiative focusing on illegal immigration. His visit was held in the light of the upcoming Greek EU Presidency in January 2014, to be followed by the Italian one on the second semester of 2014.

 “Europe must devise a common policy to deal with illegal immigration”, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in Malta after his meeting with his Maltese counterpart Joseph Muscat. Samaras noted the importance of southern European countries forming a common front, especially for Greece, where high unemployment and massive illegal immigration flows create serious social problems and need an urgent response. Muscat also supported the idea of a common front to face illegal immigration, with special reference to the successive presidencies of the EU by Greece and Italy in 2014."There is no magical solution," he said, "but we are showing results and this issue cannot be left untackled”.

In Rome, Samaras termed as "particularly important" the undertaking of “joint action with Italy” in view of the two countries' successive EU presidencies in 2014, so that “Europe changes direction”, noting that a bilateral cooperation aiming to bring changes in EU's policies on illegal immigration was equally important. On his part, Italian PM Enrico Letta indicated that the problem of illegal immigration would be one of the main issues of talks in the framework of the October 24-25 European Council meeting, especially following the significant wave of migrants arriving in Italy in the past months and the series of deadly shipwrecks off the Italian coast. Letta also called for the reinforcement of Frontex for the control of European frontiers and the activation of the EuroSur programme, while stressing that the Italian military-humanitarian mission 'Mare Nostrum' would be completed by 2 December 2013. The process of granting political asylum will also be at the top of the discussions agenda at European level, according to Letta’s statement.