President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos called on everyone to work for the Mediterranean Sea to become a sea of peace and not a crucible of souls’, during a speech to the Greek Diaspora in Geneva. Pavlopoulos, who was invited by the IOC President Thomas Bach, said the European Union should first and foremost defend people in Greece, while he dubbed the meeting of the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with the leader of the Roman Catholic church, Pope Francis, and Archbishop of Athens Hieronymus, scheduled for Saturday, April 16 of historic significance. ‘The refugee crisis has global proportions’, he said.