“The focus of our discussion today was the refugee issue, and we talked in particular about the issues involved in dealing with refuge flows coming to Europe from the central Mediterranean – especially from Libya.
We concluded that we need to move ahead to the adoption and implementation of a number of measures for stepping up operation SOPHIA, but we made it clear to everyone that this cannot be extended to the east without guarantees to Greece, and we explained our conditions and requirements.
We also reminded the Commission and the member states that a number of commitments the European Union has made – such as the relocation of 160,000 refugees and settlement of 50,000 refugees on the Western Balkan route, funding for Greece, which has spent almost €2 billion on this situation – have not been met, just as many of the aspects of the decisions of 25 October have not been implemented. As a result, they need to be implemented. We also talked about EU-Turkey relations and the way to implement the two sides’ joint decisions.”
April 19, 2016