Mikser: EU's foreign ministers focusing on preventing new migration crisis
The European Union's foreign ministers looking for solutions for the tensions created on the Greek-Turkish border are focusing more on the pragmatics than on the principles, MEP Sven Mikser (SDE) forecasted on ETV´s morning program "Terevisioon".
"What are the exact proposals, what are the EU´s foreign ministers discussing? I don´t know but there are probably fewer principles than there are pragmatics," Mikser said in the interview. "It is important for the ministers from an internal political point of view that a large number of Syrian refugees wouldn´t arrive in Europe.
"The migrant crisis of 2015 isn´t probably repeating again, but it takes a whole lot less today to make the whole of Europe tense up," Mikser added.
Mikser admitted that Europe doesn´t have the readiness to contribute to the solving of the Syrian crisis with greater power.
"Great change can´t be brought with messages alone," he said.
According to Mikser, what follows depends on what is the situation in Idlib, northwestern Syria, where Turkey is protecting the last rebels against the incursion of the Assad regime's forces.
"Turkey is waiting for the support from their NATO and EU allies that they haven´t seen so far. This conflict is also multifaceted."
Mikser added that not all migrants of the Greek border are Syrians.
"EU has supported the mitigation of the migrant situation with a quite significant amount of money during recent years," Mikser said, in relation to finding solutions.
"And Europe might be ready to pay more," he added.
The EU foreign ministers will be discussing the strategic communication with Turkey in a non-official meeting in Zagreb on Friday, March 6.
The interior ministers of the EU emphasized on March 3 that the union of 27 member countries will fend off Turkish attempts to use the migrants for political reasons with power. The ministers said, in Brussels, that the situation in the EU´s external borders is not acceptable.
The Turkish government has rejected these allegations of trying to use the migrant wave as a means of extortion.
Ankara wants Brussels to support the 3,7 million refugees coming from Syria, and the intense Turkish confrontation with the Damascus regime.
However, EU ministers emphasized that Turkey needs to adhere to the current agreement, with what Ankara agreed to avoid the movement of the refugees and immigrants to Greece.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino
