EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SUMMIT ARRIVALS EU leaders arrive at Brussels summit to push for agreements on migrant crisis

Record ID: 134663

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SUMMIT ARRIVALS EU leaders arrive at Brussels summit to push for agreements on migrant crisis
  • Date: 15th October 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 15, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF EUROPEAN COUNCIL BUILDING POLICE OUTSIDE BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADMVF8UJXQFJR2KCNO8ZYJY4LU
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French President Francois Hollande called for solidarity within the European Union as he arrived at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday (October 15) which was aimed at discussing the ongoing migrant crisis.
    Hollande stressed the need to support countries outside the 28-member bloc to encourage migrants to stay there rather than make the treacherous journey by boat across the Mediterranean by boat.
    "We must also and above all now make sure that the countries welcoming refugees outside of the European Union, I'm thinking of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, can be helped because if not we know very well what might happen. That is to say this movement, this departure of people (from these countries) will come to the European coast, creating dramas that I want to avoid," Hollande said, adding his praise for Germany's efforts.
    "We have reallocated refugees in Europe. Germany has made the greatest effort and today it is about having a protection mechanism for our borders and I am in solidarity with Mrs Merkel because it would be too easy to not come to the aid of Germany in the pretense that the Germans are doing the most. There comes a time when we must also be European," he told journalists outside the European Council building.
    Germany, a favoured destination for migrants, expects 800,000 to a million new arrivals this year. Many Germans feel the country cannot cope with the record influx.
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the need for the burden of the migrant crisis to be spread evenly among the EU.
    "It will not be possible to achieve final results tonight, but I hope that we will get clear signals that all countries will fulfil their financial responsibilities and that all countries are prepared to provide manpower because it is obvious that just few countries currently have a lot of migrants and if they all also have to provide people at the outer borders then I don't think that is what we understand by a fair distribution of the burden," Merkel said on her arrival at the meeting.
    Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Greece was prepared to talk to Turkey and that efforts needed to be made to find a solution to the war in Syria.
    "I think that now it is time to take brave political initiatives in order to solve the Syrian crisis, in order to try to stop these waves of refugees in the Mediterranean, the people that want to seek a better life in Europe," he said.
    EU leaders will also be briefed by European Council President Donald Tusk "about the process ahead" concerning the British vote. Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Thursday to speed up Britain's renegotiation of its ties with the European Union and lay out specific demands next month ahead of a referendum on whether to quit the bloc that is due before the end of 2017.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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