BALKANS-SUMMIT/MIGRANTS Balkans and EU need a plan to handle migrant crisis - ministers
Record ID:
142357
BALKANS-SUMMIT/MIGRANTS Balkans and EU need a plan to handle migrant crisis - ministers
- Title: BALKANS-SUMMIT/MIGRANTS Balkans and EU need a plan to handle migrant crisis - ministers
- Date: 27th August 2015
- Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (AUGUST 27, 2015) (REUTERS) HOFBURG PRESIDENTIAL COMPLEX, VENUE OF BALKANS SUMMIT SECURITY EU COMMISSIONER FOR ENLARGEMENT JOHANNES HAHN, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER, AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SEBASTIAN KURZ, SERBIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IVICA DACIC AND MACEDONIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER NIKOLA POPOSKI ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, SEBASTIAN KURZ, SAYING: "If we are not able to find a quick European solution here, then more and more countries like Hungary and Denmark - who are already doing it - will try to solve this crisis for themselves on their own with individual measures and their own initiatives. It won't work and above all it threatens our European idea of having open borders and with that proper security at the EU's outer borders. And so I hope that we will be able to find a European answer and I can only once again say that I believe that only with a European solution will we be able to solve the migrant crisis together." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER, SAYING: "You all know that there are a number of EU member states who are against it, but I am sure that without a fair distribution we risk the acceptance in those countries which are currently having to take in the majority of the migrants. That is why it is so important to make progress here. We need the same standards and processes, we need the commitment of all states to carry out early registration." NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER, SAYING: "Several days ago we in Germany decided that we would support Greece with around 1.2 million euros to improve the humanitarian standards there. Yesterday we decided that we would help Macedonia and Serbia with up to one million euros because I think, and this is shown in the daily pictures, that these transit countries are especially burdened. We must help but we must also call upon the obligations in these states to deal with the migrants in a humane way." HAHN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, SEBASTIAN KURZ, SAYING: "I think we honestly need to say that the current concept of the European Union regarding the migrant policy is Dublin. The reality is that Dublin is not being adhered to, sometimes deliberately and sometimes due to excessive demands, and therefore is not largely working. This is why we need, as quickly as possible, a new strategy otherwise there is the threat of new individual measures, many of which will not correspond to the spirit of the European Union." BANNER ON WALL READING (English): "WESTERN BALKANS SUMMIT 2015" (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, IVICA DACIC, SAYING: "For years you have been talking about the asylum seekers coming from Serbia, Macedonia and other countries into the EU and now I can tell you, we can tell you that migrants are coming to us from the European Union so we would like to ask when do you plan to establish controls and prevent migrants from going to Serbia and Macedonia? And you are not going to solve this issue with giving us the 1 million (euros) you are planning to give." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, IVICA DACIC, SAYING: "So you have a problem but you are asking us, Serbia, to come up with the action plan for migrants. You should come up with an action plan first and then ask us to come up with our plan. I have to be completely open with you on this issue because we are friends." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) MACEDONIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER NIKOLA POPOSKI SAYING: "Probably with this Vienna conference that we can use as encouragement points we can come to a solution that will be a European one. Thank you very much." NEWS CONFERENCE ENDING
- Embargoed: 11th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Austria
- Country: Austria
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAA3VRS2CAS4XYK255JHFVY6W6O
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: German and Austrian foreign ministers called for a quick "European" solution to the migrant crisis on Thursday (August 27) saying the block risks individual countries introducing own measures, which would threaten the Schengen border agreement.
"If we are not able to find a quick European solution here, then more and more countries like Hungary and Denmark - who are already doing it - will try to solve this crisis for themselves on their own with individual measures and their own initiatives. It won't work and above all it threatens our European idea of having open borders and with that proper security at the EU's outer borders. And so I hope that we will be able to find a European answer and I can only once again say that I believe that only with a European solution will we be able to solve the migrant crisis together," Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz told a news conference opening the Western Balkans summit in Vienna.
"You all know that there are a number of EU member states who are against it, but I am sure that without a fair distribution we risk the acceptance in those countries which are currently having to take in the majority of the migrants," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. He also said Germany would help Macedonia and Serbia with up to one million euros to deal with the influx of migrants transiting these two countries.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said at the Vienna summit that launching accession talks with the EU, announced by enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, would be the best way to help Belgrade deal with an influx of migrants from conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
"For years you have been talking about the asylum seekers coming from Serbia, Macedonia and other countries into the EU and now I can tell you, we can tell you that migrants are coming to us from the European Union so we would like to ask when do you plan to establish controls and prevent migrants from going to Serbia and Macedonia? And you are not going to solve this issue with giving us the 1 million (euros) you are planning to give," Dacic said.
"So you have a problem but you are asking us, Serbia, to come up with the action plan for migrants. You should come up with an action plan first and then ask us to come up with our plan. I have to be completely open with you on this issue because we are friends," Dacic added.
Since the start of 2015, he said, some 94,000 migrants mainly from Syria and Afghanistan have registered in Serbia after transiting EU states such as Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.
Most of them want to go on to more affluent western EU countries such as Germany and Sweden by crossing from Serbia into Hungary, the start of the EU's Schengen zone of passport-free travel. But Hungary has begun building a 175-km (110-mile) fence along the frontier to try to halt the influx. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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