The leaders of the European Union at last night’s meeting with the countries of the West Balkans in Brussels, adopted 17 points that are part of a short-term plan for dealing with the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, nevertheless, stressed that it is important to solve the the cause of the crisis with a long-term plan.
The action plan recommends Macedonia start immediately to implement bilateral confidence-building measures to strengthen cooperation with Greece for border control. The meeting also calls for the Macedonian, Greek and Albanian authorities to strengthen control of their external borders on land. The Frontex Agency will have to assist the Government in Athens in the registration process of refugees and migrants that have not yet been registered. The document also provides for “enhanced commitment to UNHCR at the border between Greece and Macedonia.”
Leaders agreed that along the route the migrants take from Greece, through the Western Balkans, and to EU member, states to start establishing shelters for over 100,000 refugees during the winter, of which 50,000 will settle in the Western Balkans.
The meeting said they will provide Slovenia with 400 additional police officers from EU countries to tighten surveillance of the external borders within one week of the external borders of the Union, and to establishment hot control points for determining which are migrants, which are refugees fleeing from war, and which are using the crisis for economic reasons.
As for Macedonia, President Georgi Ivanov announced that Macedonia is prepared for all scenarios.
“We will cooperate and are prepared to be a transit-zone, for refugees to pass through and not remain. We hope it will not come to border closures. That is why we gathered for this meeting, to find a solution. We discussed all possible solutions and Macedonia will participate. Unfortunately, we are not part of the EU, but we must have all the information to deal with all the challenges that we face regarding the refugees”, said President Ivanov.
