Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to start on Thursday a series of bilateral meetings with European Union state leaders on the refugee crisis on the sidelines of the summit in Brussels.
European leaders were to discuss the refugee issue with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. However, the terrorist attack in Ankara that left 28 dead and hundreds injured forced the Turkish premier to cancel his appearance in Brussels. This gives the Greek prime minister an opportunity to have person to person meetings with certain heads of state.
According to the Greek side, Turkey’s stance is key to controlling the refugee inflow to Europe. Tsipras will insist that only Turkey can stem the refugee flow at its shores.
The Greek prime minister will also have to argue against the Visegard Four, namely Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the four countries that insist that only the closing of the Greece-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border will stem the migrant flow.
Greece’s position is that closing the borders is against European Union ideals. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk have expressed identical views, saying that closing European borders is against what Europe stands for.
Also, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is opposed to the idea of closing the FYROM border.
Tsipras’ argument will be that Greece has fulfilled its obligations by setting up refugee registration and processing centers on the Greek islands and agreed to have NATO ships patrolling the waters where refugee smugglers transport people to the Greeks islands from the Turkish coasts.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
