After Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia closed their borders to migrants over the past day, Angela Merkel commented that the Balkan nations’ measures to stop the flow of migrants would be unsustainable without a broader EU response to the refugee crisis.
Closing borders “is not the solution to the entire problem,” Merkel noted. Rather there must be an agreement among the EU’s 28 members, she added.
EU leaders at a recent summit announced that the irregular migrant flows along the Balkan route “have now come to an end.” At Merkel’s urging, the summit statement distinctly avoided using the word “closed.”
Merkel’s comments contradicted with European Union President Donald Tusk, who earlier had welcomed the change, saying the Balkan states were simply implementing an important part of the EU plan to tackle the refugee crisis.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came to the defence of Angela Merkel. He responded to Donald Tusk through Twitter saying: “The Western Balkans route has come to an end due to unilateral actions by certain countries. EU has no future if it goes on like that.”
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