A government spokesman on immigration said Athens rejected calls to reactivate the so-called Dublin Regulation, which requires migrants to apply for asylum in the first European Union country they reach and would allow other European Union members to send asylum-seekers back to Greece.
Advertisement
“A country such as Greece which receives a large number of refugees from Turkey, and also hosts a large number of refugees – practically without any outside help – can not be asked to receive refugees from other European countries”, Giorgos Kyritsis told The Associated Press.
Southern EU leaders on Friday called for revised asylum rules to fight the ongoing migration crisis, and appealed for unity ahead of a showdown on the post-Brexit future of the bloc.
More than 850,000 people – a lot of them fleeing conflict in war-ravaged Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – arrived on the Greek islands a year ago alone after often risking their lives on unseaworthy boats and dinghies.
“We need to reach a European asylum system that is realistic and shows solidarity, instead of shifting the burden to entry states”, Greece’s junior foreign minister for European affairs, Nikos Xydakis said in an interview with Agence-France Presse.
The Greek PM also wants to form a counterweight to Germany, and its belt-tightening agenda for the EU.
“One could have wished to see more progress than we have… but what I state is that we have seen in recent days an intensification of efforts by the Greek authorities”, European Union commissioner for economic and tax affairs Pierre Moscovici said. Creditors, including the International Monetary Fund, say Greece will never manage to pay back its €328 billion, but Berlin has refused to open debt relief discussions before the German elections in 2017. The two countries failed to bring their budget deficits below the European Union’s ceiling past year, though they were not penalized.
Other ministers meeting in Bratislava on Friday expressed concern that Greece was falling behind schedule.
Human rights groups have criticized the agreement, saying it condemns refugees to an uncertain future in Turkey, and implementation has proved problematic as Greek authorities struggle to process asylum bids by people arguing that they shouldn’t be sent back.
Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, second left, shakes hands with French President Francois Hollande during a Mediterranean Leader’s Summit in Athens, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016.
The eurogroup will judge whether the troubled country has held up its side of the deal to release the next portion of aid from the €10.2billion (£8.5bn) package, which is needed to make looming debt repayments.
Friday’s talks are in preparation for next week’s informal European Union leaders’ summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, as the bloc remains rattled by Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union and recent gains for the nationalist vote in Germany.
Advertisement
Tsipras said he hoped the meeting would help give weight to Europe’s southern states, which were worst hit by Europe’s many problems. Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy did not attend.
