EU Commission’s efforts to address refugee crisis focused on Greece, Juncker says

He said that Commission will provide up to 600 employees to support Greece in the protection of external borders

“The European Commission’s efforts on dealing with the refugee crisis are focused on Greece,” the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said at the European Parliament plenary.

He also explained that he is preparing a “cooperation memorandum between EU-Turkey” on the same issue.

Dealing with the “humanitarian situation of refugees” within the EU and the neighboring countries was the focus of discussions at the European Parliament plenary, in the presence of the President of the Council Donald Tusk and the European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

The two presidents presented the conclusions of the informal European Council meeting conducted on September 23 regarding the refugee crisis.

The proposals of the Commission for 2015 and those to be submitted in the coming weeks for 2016 relate initially to 800 million euros.

He stressed that the European Commission’s participation in the effort for the reallocation of refugees and the quick response are important as this will persuade the Council to follow.

He underlined that the efforts are focused on Greece and that 66,000 refugees arrived in Greece should be reallocated to other EU countries, while explaining that Commission will provide up to 600 employees to support Greece in the protection of external borders.