Angela Merkel calls on EU to help Western Balkans face migrant influx

Angela Merkel calls on EU to help Western Balkans face migrant influx

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/11829354/Angela-Merkel-calls-on-EU-to-help-Western-Balkans-face-migrant-influx.html

The German Chancellor said the EU must pitch in to help countries such as Serbia and Macedonia to tackle migrant crisis

The EU must act swiftly to help Western Balkan countries who are facing a massive influx of Europe-bound migrants, Angela Merkel has warned.

German chancellor said European leaders must pitch in to tackle the "huge challenges" being faced by countries such as Macedonia and Serbia.

“We have more refugees in the world than at any time since the Second World War,” she said at a summit in Vienna. “The world’s eyes are upon us.”

Mrs Merkel was speaking at an annual EU-Balkans summit which was supposed to focus on relations between the bloc and candidate countries in the region.

But it was dominated by the migrant crisis, as Serbian and Macedonian delegates told European leaders bluntly it was down to them to find an answer to the thousands of asylum-seekers currently streaming across the region towards EU borders.

“It’s a European Union problem, but we’re expected to come up with an action plan,” Ivica Dacic, the Serbian foreign minister said.

“I have to be very direct here, please understand. We bear the brunt of the burden.”

The EU has pledged €1.5m (£1.1m) to help Serbia and Macedonia, but Mr Dacic said the money would not be enough.

"When do you plan to establish controls and prevent migrants going to Serbia and Macedonia?” he said.

“Unless we have a European answer to this crisis, no one should be under any illusion it will be solved,” Nikola Poposki, the Macedonian foreign minister, said.

Mrs Merkel noted that the transit countries were already facing economic difficulties which were compounded by the migrant crisis.

"As future members of the European Union, it is our responsibility to ease their problems," she told a news conference.

Austria floated elements of a five-point plan that includes establishing safe havens in migrants’ home countries where their applications for asylum in the EU could be processed – possibly protected by UN troops

The plan also calls for quotas for migrants to be shared more evenly between EU member states – an idea Britain has rejected.

Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian foreign minister, warned ahead of the talks that his country would consider imposing “much tighter border controls” if the EU does not come up with a response.

“The question arises whether trust in Europe will collapse, whether we can solve this problem together,” Werner Faymann, the Austrian chancellor, told the summit.

“That’s the wrong path. Every country will then try to build walls with watchtowers.”

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