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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-10-20
CONTENTS
[01] Tsipras at EUCO: Greece bears all the burden of the refugee crisis
[01] Tsipras at EUCO: Greece bears all the burden of the refugee crisis
BRUSSELS (ANA/M. Aroni) – Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asked for
effective solidarity on the refugee issue instead of flexible or optional
solidarity during his speech at the European Council summit in Brussels
on Thursday which discussed migration, government sources said.
Tsipras said "Greece is carrying all of Europe's burden on the refugee
issue", adding that out of the 66,000 relocations Greece was to make
to other member-states, only 5,200 have been implemented. "We didn't
do the EU-Turkey deal to stop the flow of refugees, but to replace the
illegal flows with legal flows. If some people want to seal off all flows,
then this is against our common principles," he told EU leaders.
Concerning the review of the common European asylum system, the
prime minister said it is "unacceptable" because it doesn't foresee
a distribution of migrants but burdens solely the countries of first
entrance, the same sources said. He also said the EU must give Turkey a
clear answer about the Visa issue so as not to give Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan excuses to not uphold the agreement. On the Visa
issue, he also said EU must not hold "double standards for Cyprus".
A working dinner is currently underway in which EU leaders will discuss
EU's relations with Russia and the Brexit.
On Friday, Tsipras will meet with French President Francois Hollande at
10:00 and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at 10:30. The time of the
meeting with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
has not been set yet.
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