The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, and the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, will visit the Greek-Turkish border on Tuesday 3 March, the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriákos Mitsotákis, and the European Commission announced on 2 March.
An Extraordinary Council of EU Interior Ministers will then be held on Wednesday 4 March, the Croatian EU Council Presidency and the Vice President for the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, also confirmed. The EU will never allow itself to be “blackmailed”, he warned on Twitter. An extraordinary meeting of Foreign Ministers is also scheduled for Friday 6 March in Zagreb.
Mrs von der Leyen, Mr Michel, Mr Plenković and Mr Sassoli will visit the land border between Greece and Turkey, where more than 13,000 migrants and refugees arrived over the weekend, despite assurances given by the Turkish authorities on the maintenance of the commitments made in 2016 under the EU/Turkey Declaration (see EUROPE 12436/12).
On Sunday, the Greek authorities said that, given the migration situation at its borders with Turkey, the filing of asylum applications in Greece will be suspended for one month. Greece has also requested activation of Article 78(3) of the Treaty, which allows exceptional measures to be implemented in the EU when a Member State is faced with sudden migratory pressure.
In 2015, the Juncker Commission invoked this article of the Treaty to set up a compulsory relocation instrument for Greece and Italy.
When questioned on Monday 2 March, the Commission refused, at this stage, to consider whether Turkey is in breach of the March 2016 agreement. It merely stated that high-level contacts are under way with the Turkish authorities to convince them to continue to implement the terms of the agreement.
“We expect Turkey to honour its commitments” and to ”return to the implementation of the agreement as it stood before the end of last week”, said Peter Stano, spokesman for the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
On Monday, the Commission did not wish to move forward on possible measures on the basis of Article 78(3), which gives it responsibility for establishing crisis provisions. This aid will be formulated only after listening to the Greek Prime Minister’s requests. But, according to one source, the response should focus on the EU’s “protection of the external border” in Greece.
Over the weekend, several EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, offered such help in Athens to manage the EU’s external borders.
On Monday, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) announced that it was sending reinforcements to the Aegean Sea with a “rapid reaction force”. Already present in this area in support of the Greek Coast Guard, Frontex could also move to reinforce the land border in the Evros area, where its presence has been reduced in recent years.
Suspending asylum applications violates Geneva Convention, says UNHCR
The Commission did not wish to comment on the legality of the Greek government’s announcement that it would suspend the lodging of asylum applications for one month. Its lawyers are studying the issue. The EU institution also did not comment on social network images showing the Greek coast guard pushing away migrant boats.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this suspension is not permitted by the 1951 Geneva Convention. Expressing its readiness to assist Greece at the border with Turkey, the UN agency explained that “neither the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees nor European refugee law provides a legal basis for suspending the reception of asylum applications”.
For her part, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, urged Europeans to “act immediately” and to “address the humanitarian and protection needs of those trapped between Turkey and Greece”.
The human rights situation on the border between Turkey and Greece, “where thousands of vulnerable men, women and children are trapped between the borders without access to aid or the possibility of seeking international protection, constitutes an unprecedented humanitarian crisis”, says UNHCR, calling for urgent action to address the increasing severity of the situation and for the authorities on the ground to refrain from using “excessive” force. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Camille Cerise Gessant)