French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday. — AFP
French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday. — AFP
European Union member states threw their weight behind a joint EU-Turkey plan to limit the flow of refugees to Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said early on Friday after several hours of talks with EU leaders.
“The important statement for me today is that we have not only reaffirmed the EU-Turkey action plan, but we have said it is our priority,” she said of the plan to protect the EU’s external borders and stem the migrant influx. Ms Mer-kel noted that Austria backed the EU-Turkey plan, despite its unilateral decision to introduce daily caps on migrants.
Austria on Friday introduced a daily cap on asylum seekers which could trigger a domino effect of border clampdowns on the Balkan migrant trail from Greece up to northern Europe. The move sparked an angry reaction from the EU saying the “unilateral actions” are “incompatible” with EU law. Instead EU leaders, spearheaded by Germany, hope to firm up a deal with Ankara at a special summit in March. Under the pact, Turkey would close its borders and then fly refugees to Europe for resettlement in exchange for three billion euros.
Meanwhile, Greece has threatened not to sign off on the final conclusions of an EU summit on migration and Britain’s membership, holding out for assurances EU states will not shut borders over the migrant crisis, government officials said on Friday. “We can’t agree unless there is a clear statement in the conclusions that there won’t be any unilateral (migrant) action until the next summit. No borders should close until then,” one of the officials said. Although not related to the issue of Britain’s renegotiation of its terms with the EU— the Greek move could complicate the situation.
The official said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been given assurances by Germany and France that they would support his position on migrants. Other countries have expressed differences, however.
The vast majority of migrants and refugees enter the EU in Greece and Athens is fearful that closed borders would leave thousands stranded there. “It doesn’t make sense for Greece, which has made every effort to handle the refugee issue to carry all of the burden and risk being isolated,” an official said.
