The Greek Ambassador in Austria has been Summoned

Just a few days after the official representation of Greece to Austria for its exclusion from the meeting of the countries of the Balkans, which took place in Vienna yesterday the leadership of Greek diplomacy decided to bring the Greek ambassador back to Greece in order to deliberate on the recent developments. The meeting of the Western Balkan countries which met in Vienna decided that the migrant influx must be controled drastically. The decision was made while 3000 migrants have already gathered in Greece's northern borders. FYROM announced that it would only allow passage to just 100 migrants daily.

According to the Ministry's website:  “The Foreign Ministry’s Political Director, Ambassador Petros Mavroeidis, yesterday delivered to the Austrian Ambassador here, Andrea Ikić-Böhm, a demarche regarding the initiative for organizing, in Vienna, a conference of the Interior and Foreign Ministers of Austria and the countries of the Western Balkans,”

The ministry also notes  that: “It is clear that the major problems of the European Union cannot be confronted via thoughts, attitudes and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century, and nor can the decisions of the heads of state be supplanted by directives from police directors. The latter is a major problem for democracy. It points to the need for the European Union to be protected from various parties who are ignorant of history.

Unilateral initiatives for resolving the refugee crisis, along with violations of international law and the European acquis by member states of the EU, are practices that can undermine the foundations and process of European integration.

Responsibility for dealing with the migration and refugee crisis cannot weigh on one country alone. Common sense dictates that effective handling of this complex problem should be governed by the principles of solidarity and fair burden sharing. Greece is working in such a direction.”

The Austrian Minister of Foreign affairs answered that any Greek threats about a veto are out of place and in bad timing.

The President of the Commission stated that the Commission is in disagreement with Austria. The German FinMin W.Schauble spoke of the need to reach a European solution. The commissioner for migration, D.Avramopoulos stated that these are times of high responsibility. The Dutch presidency of EU noted that if the migrant influx has not been moderated until the Europe-Turkey summit, then more measures will have to be taken.