The European Commission is preparing an emergency plan for Greece and other countries on the Balkan corridor, in order to avert a humanitarian crisis. According to the Athens-Macedonia News Agency, the plan is expected be approved on Wednesday and will have a budget over 500 million euros.
EC spokesperson Mina Andreeva explained that the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker requested such a plan after meeting with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras in Brussels, in late February.
Mrs. Andreeva added that the emergency plan will address the current and future needs of Greece and other countries on the Balkan corridor, in relation to receiving refugees, human resources, financial and material support.
A report in Belgian newspaper De Standaard also reveals that the European Commission will provide funding to the UNHCR, which in turn will use them to set up refugee camps in selected parts of Greece.
The Minister of Migration Policy Yannis Mouzalas commented that the Greek government is taking all precautions, as if the borders have been shut down indefinitely. Mr. Mouzalas noted that 450 million euros have been requested to accommodate the refugees who are expected to be ‘trapped’ in Greece.
Emergency humanitarian aid
The EU is proposing increased humanitarian aid for Greece, where more than 20,000 refugees and migrants are stuck after borders were tightened along the Balkans.
The EU executive’s aid and crisis management commissioner will put forward a plan on Wednesday that officials said would allocate 300 million euros this year to helping any EU state, not only Greece, deal with humanitarian crises, and a total of 700 million over the three years to end-2018.
Commissioner Christos Stylianides, who oversees annual foreign aid spending of 1.1 billion euros, will propose funding the new scheme through transfers within the EU’s existing multi-year budget, officials said, without touching funds earmarked for humanitarian relief outside the 28-nation bloc.
Beyond 2018, the scheme would continue with further funding. A European Commission spokesman told reporters the new plan was needed “to prevent humanitarian suffering as a result of an unprecedented number of people arriving in the EU“.
Margaritis Schinas said the Commission was very concerned at violence on the Greek-Macedonian border. He spoke as the bloc is gearing up for a summit on Monday with Turkey, the point of departure for the vast majority of people heading to Europe.
Joint European plan
More than a million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe last year – mostly via Turkey to Greece – and another 130,000 have reached the continent so far in 2016. Overwhelmed, Greece and other countries along the main migration route have tended to wave the people through and the influx has brought Europe’s Schengen zone of free travel to the verge of collapse.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker talked to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday and European Council President Donald Tusk will visit Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey this week.
Brussels and Berlin, which are battling to make a joint European plan to alleviate the migration crisis work, are banking on Turkey to sharply reduce the number of people embarking for Europe, many of whom have fled the war in Syria.
But a growing number of EU states are resorting to unilaterally tightening their own borders, seeking to control the flow of people and prevent a spike in the arrivals many expect later in March as the weather improves.
Austria, the last stop for refugees and migrants heading to their top destination Germany, infuriated Athens, Berlin and Brussels last month by announcing daily caps on the number of people it processes.
Chancellor Werner Faymann defended the step, saying Austria cannot become a waiting room for Germany. Tusk, in Vienna on the first leg of his pre-summit tour along the Balkans migration route, said after talks with Faymann: “We must face together the consequences of our decisions. The country that we must support in particular is Greece.”
The best possible solution
Greece has also asked the EU for 480 million euros ($534 million) in emergency funds to help shelter 100,000 refugees, the government said Tuesday, warning that the migrant influx threatened to overwhelm its crisis-hit resources.
“Greece has submitted an emergency plan to the European Commission .. corresponding to around 100,000 refugees,” government spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili told reporters.
“We cannot bear the strain of all the refugees coming here… these are temporary measures, there needs to be a permanent solution on where the refugees will be relocated,” she added.
“Greece has made it clear that it will use every diplomatic means available to find the best possible solution,” Gerovassili said.
With Austria and Balkan states capping the numbers of migrants entering their soil, there has been a build-up along the Greek border with Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
25,000 migrants and refugees
Athens had previously warned that it could be stuck with up to 70,000 people trapped on its territory.
Gerovassili said there were 25,000 migrants and refugees currently in the country and that FYROM was only allowing “a few dozen” through every day.
Over 7,000 people – many of them stranded in near the Idomeni border crossing for days – spent a freezing night and awoke under wet canvas among sodden wheat fields.
Greek news agency ANA said another 6,000 people were waiting to cross to the mainland after landing on islands in the Aegean from neighbouring Turkey.
The spokeswoman said the Greek army was helping feed some 10,000 people.
Thousands more are fed by aid and church groups and the government has put out a call for private donations of food, medicine and health supplies.
Gerovassili added that migration flows from Turkey showed no sign of slowing down despite the recent deployment of NATO warships to help the Turkish coastguard tackle people-smugglers sending migrants to Greece.
“There has not been a significant reduction in the flow…today there were just over 1,000 (new arrivals) which is considered ordinary,” she said.
Sources: Reuters/AFP/ANA-MPA
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