One day before the EU summit in Brussels with the Migration Crisis high on the agenda, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that shutting down Greece’s borders to slow the influx was illegal and unacceptable.
In an interview with German conservative daily BILD, Juncker was asked whether closing Greece’s border to FYROM – as four Central European countries demand – would decrease the number of refugees at the German borders.
Juncker: “Working with third countries in order to close the border of one of our member states, is neither legally possible nor politically acceptable. We support the border security on both sides, the Greek and Macedonian. Only if we work more closely together and coordinate us, we can do it -. without destroying confidence and therefore jeopardize the Schengen and our domestic freedom.”
Question: Do you still believe that the EU will take the refugee crisis under control?
Juncker: “As we did with the debt crisis, only a package of measures jointly developed will have the desired effect in the refugee crisis. Yes, it will take time until all measures we have decided upon in recent weeks and months will show effect.”
Quoting the EC report on Greece & the Refugee Crisis, Juncker said further that “Greece now takes the fingerprints of nine out of ten asylum seekers; in September that was at 8%.”
He praised Turkey saying “Thanks to important decisions taken by the Turkish government, we see a decline in the number of refugees coming from there. According to Frontex, daily arrivals from Turkey to Greece were 7,000 in October and 3,500 in December. Today, they are 2,000. We see finally started to make progress. ”
On Tuesday, Austria joined the chorus of the four ex communist countries, the so-called The Visengrad Four (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) that demand the shutting off Greece’s borders to FYROM.
Just a few days ago, the European Commission and President Juncker approved 10 million euro assistance to FYROM for the purpose of “border management.”
I am sure, experienced politicians like Juncker know very well how to deal with discrepancies and contradictions.
“so? it is illegal, right?”
PS Juncker said “macedonian border”? I hope, no Greek diplomat reads Juncker’s interview as we all know that “Macedonia is the geographical place in northern Greece” and the country is officially called Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Name dispute between Athens and Skopje, you know?
The name “bullshit” is in fact the only positive outcome for Skopje but in the end they’ll still need Greece much more than these unreliable satellites and can shove any EU-promises regarding membership. What will the satellites do when the Slovenian port authority stops paying them bribes for cutting off Piraeus? Ask COSCO for high velocity tracks?
Also for the partly Muslim population of Yugoslavia it must sound weird that their government(s) deal(s) with Islamophobes
JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKERBOND IS A SENILE 61 YEAR OLD MAN
THAT WAS NEVER VERY BRIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE & TODAY HE IS NOT MUCH MORE THAN A HORSES ARSE OF A MAN, WHO NEEDS TO RETIRE.
IT IS THAT THE OLD PEOPLE WILL NOT LET GO OF THE POSITIONS OF POWER & MONEY PHILANDERING THAT THEY HOLD.
THE OLD POPULATION NEED TO BE SHOVED OUT INTO RETIREMENT – FORCIBLY
THEY LIVE IN THEIR OWN LITTLE WORLD OF SELF-NEED & SELF-GREED
WHAT IDIOT RAISED THE RETIREMENT AGE ABOVE 60 YEARS OF AGE.
JUST LOOK AT THE CRISIS THE WORLD IS IN TODAY AS A RESULT OF DECISIONS MADE BY GERIATRICS WHO BELONG IN A RETIREMENT HOME.
THEY CAUSED THE 2008 GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND IT HAS BEEN DOWN HILL ALL THE WAY EVER SINCE.
AND NOW WE ARE TALKING ABOUT WORLD WAR THREE…
retirement age is 65+ in EU, dear
One symptom of senility is forgetting where the shift key is on a computer keyboard — and typing in ALL CAPS
LOL
And incidentally, I am 60 years old and in better physical and mental condition than most people I meet aged 40. So you can cut the crap with ageism.
Amen!