As Turkey continues to escalate its provocations towards Greece and threaten Europe by opening corridors for more refugees to reach the continent, the European Parliament will attempt to exert pressure on the country by adopting a resolution calling on it to release two Greek servicemen held in a Turkish prison in the city of Adrianople. The talks at Strasbourg continue, with Greek MEP Eva Kaili asking French President Emmanuel Macron whether France would agree to help in the formation of a European defence to alleviate the pressure by immigrant flows in the southern countries. Mr Macron responded that France has expressed its support to Greece in the event it was threatened, a point he had made clear to Greek PM Alexis Tsipras in person. On the issue of the EU’s border control, Mr Macron proposed a bolstering of the borders saying that the countries bearing the brunt of the refugee flows could not be abandoned. The Secretary of the EP’s People’s Party (PP), Antonio Lopez-White echoed the position of the French President adopting a harsher stance in reference to the fate of the two Greek servicemen, saying: “The two Greeks are also European military personnel and if they are not released directly, we should impose sanctions on Turkey”.
Swedish MEP of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Bodil Valero the EP had discussed the subject of Turkey many times and had never mentioned something positive. “Now we are talking about two Greek soldiers who have inadvertently crossed the border. We do not understand why the Greeks are being held”, she said.