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GreekReporter.comGreeceEU Agrees Greece and Italy Should Not Shoulder Refugee Burden Alone

EU Agrees Greece and Italy Should Not Shoulder Refugee Burden Alone

930ea786324a6a7087cef27c390b1b64Despite disagreements over quotas, European Union member states agreed that the refugee issue is a shared responsibility and that Greece and Italy should not shoulder the burden alone.
After a marathon meeting on the refugee issue, European leaders agreed on the first measures to tackle the refugee influx and the problem created at the entry points, namely, Greece, Italy and the Balkans.
Early on Thursday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stated that, “Europe has understood, albeit a little late, that refugee and migrant flow is a European issue which calls for a European solution.” He added that the European Union should put “people first, and the economy second”.
European Council President Donal Tusk announced that the leaders of EU member states committed to allocate 1 billion euros to United Nations organizations to help Syrian refugees who remain in the Middle East.
Tusk underlined that the 28 European heads of state agreed that Europe’s outer borders should be protected and this is a common responsibility of the EU so that Greece and Italy would not shoulder the burden of the refugee influx. He also said that there will be a new summit on the issue in three weeks.
Also, European leaders agreed to enhance control on the outer borders of Europe with personnel funded by the EU. At the same time, Greece should receive financial aid as an entry point.
The Council chief and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on October 5 in Ankara. The two sides will discuss cooperation with Turkey in decreasing the number of refugees who arrive in Greece from the neighboring country.
During the meeting, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia pushed for stricter control on Europe’s borders with the Middle East and Africa. The thorny issue of the meeting was the obligatory quotas for distributing refugees throughout member states. Hungary accused Germany of “moral imperialism” for trying to impose on other countries to receive big numbers of refugees like Germany did.
The key points discussed and the measures to be taken are:
– Reinforcement of border protection by Frontex and a new European Land and Coast Border Protection Force.
– Creating a long-term resettlement scheme. The proposal of the European Commission on the permanent relocation mechanism will be presented in March 2016.
– The implementation of a credible and effective policy of returning migrants to their home countries when they don’t qualify for asylum.
– The Opening of new legal channels for immigration. The European Commission is expected to present a package of measures on migration, among them the revision of the Blue Card, in March 2016.
The European Commission decided to allocate 9.5 billion euros in order to stop the refugee flow. The funds will be given as financial aid to European countries that suffer from the refugee influx and Turkey, where millions of refugees and migrants await to cross to Europe.
The EU will also give 200 million euros to the World Food Program, another 300 million euros as humanitarian aid, 500 million euros to Greece and 700 million euros to Serbia and FYROM.

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