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Refugee crisis too big for countries to handle alone

Representing Greece's caretaker government at the EU General Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, Alternate Foreign Affairs Minister Spiros Flogaitis emphasised the "huge dimensions" and urgent nature of the refugee and migrant crisis being played out on the country's maritime borders.

The loss of human lives and especially those of young children at the Greek border, which were also the external borders of the European Union, was unacceptable and demanded immediate, tangible and final measures, he said.
 
If the urgent outstanding issues cannot be tackled, he added, then a joint meeting of the foreign affairs and the justice and home affairs councils must be held. He also voiced Greece's position in favour of an urgent EU summit to decide on rules to deal with the emergency situation.
 
Flogaitis noted that a problem of that size could not be dealt with by member-states individually and required an overall strategy to address its causes. He assured his counterparts that Greece is making every possible effort to guard Europe's external borders and if all EU countries worked together "we can all be more efficient".
 
On the sidelines of the Council, minister had successive meetings with European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth, French State Secretary for European Affairs Harlem Desir and Romanian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs George Ciamba.
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