Greece, like other countries, was not ready at the beginning to deal with the huge flow of refugees, Commissioner for Immigration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos pointed out at TA NEA newspaper. However, he has recently seen efforts to be accelerated.

“But we are not there yet. All hotspots should be operated as soon as possible and we should put forward the refugee relocation,” he added.

Referring to the EU’s plan to form a European border guard and coastguard he said that the new force “will go one step further, respecting, though, the current framework of the Treaty and the state sovereignty of EU member states.”

Mr. Avramopoulos also stated that “there was no issue of Greece exiting the Schengen area” stressing that “everyone knows that the partial or total abolition of Schengen means burying the European idea”.