The President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos called for solidarity within the ranks of the EU on the refugee crisis in an exclusive interview to Italian newspaper ‘Il Messagero’. He dubbed the proposal put forward by Italian PM Mateo Renzi for the EU to fund African countries to effectively guard their borders ‘very interesting and realistic’. ‘It is a proposal that is within the framework of the 2008 European Pact on Migration and Asylum’, said Pavlopoulos. He stressed that the future of Europe itself hinged on the solidarity showed on the refugee crisis and less on common currency or economic policies. On the matter of the Greek economic crisis Pavlopoulos underlined that a debt relief was ‘more than imperative’ and as soon as possible. Pqavlopoulos said he believed the negotiations between Greece and its creditors are reaching an end, adding that a common stance on the part of the institutions was necessary.