FinMin Tsakalotos: “We need an honest broker, representing different views from different political perspectives, to examine the economic and social impact of the programme”, he said, referring to the new EP working group on macro-economic adjustment programmes.”
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UNHCR is urging Greece and States along the Balkans route to act quickly to avert a disaster and approach this emergency in a spirit of solidarity and sharing of responsibility. Safe access to asylum, shelter and basic assistance, and treating people with dignity and respect must remain essential elements of the response.
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President Donald Tusk will travel to Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Skopje and Athens from the 1st to the 3rd of March to continue building a European consensus on how to handle the migration crisis and to prepare for the summit with Turkey on 7 March and the European Council on 17-18 March.
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Common points in the approach to handling the refugee crisis, through a European prism, were ascertained in the successive meetings the Alternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Nikos Xydakis, had in Helsinki Friday with Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini, Finnish Interior Minister Petteri Orpo, and the Secretart General for Foreign and European Affairs.
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Border closures in the Balkans may create an enormous and potentially critical refugee bottleneck in Greece, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has warned.
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“The refugee crisis a global issue. We do not accept unilateral actions,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during a meeting earlier at the Maximos Mansion. “Greece needs support in helping refugees. Sharing responsibility (not closing borders) is the answer,” Grandi stressed.
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Europe is backing into an even greater refugee crisis by tightening border restrictions on the hundreds of thousands who have fled war and conflict in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi said.
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EU and NATO coordination has started to tackle the refugee crisis and will be further deepened, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told MEPs and national MPs in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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The UK and the other EU countries would be better off staying together, Martin Schulz told heads of state and government at the start of a European Council on 18-19 February dedicated to migration and the UK’s demands of a reform of its EU membership.
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EUROPEAN COUNCIL: “In response to the migration crisis facing the EU, the objective must be to rapidly stem the flows, protect our external borders, reduce illegal migration and safeguard the integrity of the Schengen area.”
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