The refugee crisis and Turkey’s role heighten debate at EP plenary
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The refugee crisis was the main issue during Tuesday’s discussions at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, where the heads of the European institutions called for unity while dealing with the problem.
Jean Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, pledged to make use of a flexibility clause when implementing the revised Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) rules, in connection with countries that share the burden of the refugee crisis.
“The pact is the pact, but we can look at flexibility when it comes to the refugee crisis” he said, noting that the new SGP rules will be applied on a country by country basis, taking into account their expenditure for the crisis.
Talking about last Sunday’s EU-Balkans mini-summit, he remarked that Europe can not be built by having the member states fighting one another, but by cooperating with each other and asked to step up their cooperation.
“The gap between pledges and what is on the table must be reduced, otherwise we are loosing all credibility” he said.
On cooperation with Turkey, Juncker noted that the Action Plan adopted at the last European Council, on October 16, must proceed. We want refugees in Turkey to stay there, the Commission President said and urged member states to find the missing 2.5 bln euros, to complement available EU funds of half a billion euros.
European Council President Donald Tusk said that the migrant crisis was the biggest challenge the EU has faced in years. We are going though difficult times and we need to take difficult decisions, he said.
He warned that a new wave of refugees from Syria is expected to arrive in the EU during the next days and said that the agreement with Turkey could help stem the flow. However, no country will replace EU borders, he said.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz asked on his part for a definite solution to the problem and referred to ‘national egos’ that became apparent at the recent mini-summit. He asked finally for decisions taken to be materialized.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner responsible for migration said that there is a lack of spirit of cooperation and asked for more solidarity and more action to be taken.
In his intervention, Cypriot MEP Lefteris Christoforou (EPP, DISI) said Turkey was taking advantage of the refugee crisis to blackmail the EU, while MEP Takis Hadjigeorgiou (EUL, AKEL) noted that it is too much to call Turkey a safe country for refugees.
Antonios Gkildakis – Strasbourg – CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY