Brussels, 02/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, was continuing his tour of the Balkans on Wednesday 2 March with a visit to Zagreb in Croatia, where he pointed out at a meeting with the prime minister, Tihomir Oreškoviæ, that the refugee crisis was testing the EU's limits and while respect of the Schengen rules will not solve the refugee crisis in itself, without the rules there is no chance of solving it.
Donald Tusk said he had come to make it very clear that there is no alternative to respect of the Schengen Code. He knew it was difficult, but only the Schengen Rules can provide the basis for a broad European solution, which is why he had come to visit and why they needed to work together at the upcoming meeting of the European Summit.
The top priority is to rapidly stem the flow and reduce illegal immigration while preserving the integrity of the Schengen Area, explained the president of the European Council. We need to return to a situation where all member states fully apply EU rules and common decisions, he said.
Therefore member states should refuse to allow people from outside the EU to enter their countries if they do not meet the entry requirements or who did not request asylum when they had the opportunity earlier to do so, added Donald Tusk. He said it would be difficult to return to a situation where Schengen works again so it must be managed responsibly and in a coordinated manner. The EU must be mobilised in all urgency, he said, along with all member states to help settle the humanitarian situation of refugees in Greece and along the Western Balkans route.
In Zagreb, President Donald Tusk stressed that there weren't any good alternatives to cooperating with Turkey. At the EU-Turkey Summit on 7 March, he said they must do all they can to turn the EU-Turkey action plan into a joint success. This will depend above all on a clear and significant reduction in the numbers of people arriving in Europe. On the evening of Tuesday 1 March, Tusk went to Slovenia, where he visited a camp on the border with Croatia. The president of the Council was due to visit Skopje, Athens and Ankara on 3 and 4 March. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)