Pressure on Greece over migration

A top EU official has warned that children are dying on Greek beaches because of a lack of medical help.
There is also anger that Greece has been slow to let in EU experts and improve its registration of refugees.
European Immigration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Wednesday warned that Greece needs to improve its border controls by mid-December, amid media reports that the country may by expelled from the Schengen Agreement if it fails to do so.
In exclusive comments made to Kathimerini newspaper, the Greek commissioner noted that the country’s timetable for action was clear and that the situation had to improve considerably by December 17, in time for a new EU Summit on the refugee and migrant crisis.
Avramopoulos further noted that “The refugee crisis we’re faced with is unprecedented. It does not solely concern first reception or destination countries, but Europe as a whole.”
“Despite the stifling pressure put on Greece, it is absolutely vital for the country to complete this effort which will lead to tangible results,” the commissioner said.
Pressure on Greece appeared to mount on Tuesday when top EU officials warned that the country faced suspension from the Schengen passport-free travel zone unless it met obligations to exercise stricter border controls.
In a Financial Times report on Tuesday, an anonymous EU ambassador was quoted saying that “the Germans are furious and that’s why people are talking about pushing Greece out.”

In a statement Wednesday, Greek government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili said “European circles insist on distorting reality and keep believing that Europe’s future can be built on phobic reflexes, fences and exclusion.”
“Greece has fulfilled its European obligations, despite the great difficulties involved,” Greek government spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili said. She added, “The question of Greece withdrawing from the Schengen accords has never been posed” at an EU level.”These same circles have been promoting during the last days this hostile environment towards Greece by unacceptably threatening the country with exiting the Schengen Treaty.

Hungary and Slovakia have recently criticized Greece for failing to adequately protect the EU’s southeastern border. And a report in the London-based “Financial Times” newspaper suggested that senior EU officials and European ministers had threatened suspension from the Schengen zone in order to pressure Greece to allow an EU force to help police its borders.
French daily “Le Monde” also reported Wednesday that Greece risks exiting the Schengen zone, saying that EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker had warned Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the possibility.
But EU officials have downplayed any suggested that Brussels has engaged in arm-twisting with Athens.
“There are still problems, but there are improvements,” Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, who holds the rotating chairmanship of ministerial meetings on migration, told the Reuters news agency.
“We have to make sure that people aren’t talking in Brussels about Schengen and Greece, of pushing Greece out of Schengen,” Asselborn said.
He also had harsh words for a proposal by the Netherlands government to carve out a “mini-Schengen” comprising the Benelux states, Germany and Austria.
“If we want to destroy Europe, give it another kick in the guts so that Europe becomes something unrecognizable compared to our idea of solidarity, then we should keep up that talk,” he said.