Press remarks by Commissioner Johansson on immediate actions to support Greece - Main contents

We have a very worrying situation. False promises and manipulation have brought people to the Greek borders and a lot of these people that were in a difficult situation already and now they are being a bit trapped by the situation. I think that the most important thing now is that we should focus on that.

This political crisis that we have right now should not turn into a long-term humanitarian crisis. This must be the focus.

The European external borders are not open and should not be opened.

What we are facing now is an extraordinary pressure on these Greek borders and that's why it's very important that we, together with Member States, show solidarity with Greece.

Vice-President Schinas just explained the different actions that we now are taking and that we will present today, also at the extraordinary Justice and Home Affairs Council that will take place at 17:00 today. We have also had an extraordinary board meeting and Frontex meeting where there was a discussion between Member States, so I guess that these 100 extra border guards and all these also manned vessels and helicopters are almost on their way to Greece right now.

We are also, together with the Member States, trying to facilitate Greece with other aspects that they need, like blankets, tents, medical teams and a lot of other things that are necessary for the people that are arriving in Greece right now.

I think that the humanitarian angle of this is also very worrying. We have a situation on the Greek islands in the refugee camps that was already unacceptable for people living there and now even more people are arriving and of course this requires further help to be provided. I would especially mention that we need to help children and unaccompanied minors. It is urgent to get them away from these conditions on the islands and to have a safehaven also for them.

As you know we have a Statement with Turkey. The European Union is still delivering on this Statement with Turkey. We are still supporting more than 1.7 million refugees in Turkey and will continue with that. It is of course necessary that Turkey, the country with the biggest refugee population in the world, will have support from the European Union. Now the focus must be to come back to dialogue with Turkey on how we can continue on that kind of Statement together.

We are much, much better prepared in the European Union today, compared to 2015. That is why we are able to to send all this help to Greece right now.

But we are not well prepared enough. We are still lacking a common approach, a common policy on migration and asylum. We are still lacking a migration and asylum deal and this is what I've been working on since we took office. I have visited and had dialogues with all the Member States, with the political parties in Parliament and with a lot of other stakeholders, to find the common ground for a compromise that can be accepted by all member states.

One thing is very clear from this dialogue is that our relations with third countries like Turkey is very, very important. The protection of the borders is also very important and we need to find the mechanism for mandatory solidarity that can help a Member State that is under pressure like Greece is right now.

When I started this dialogue with the Member States, everybody told me it's going to be very, very difficult to unblock the blocked situation and find a compromise. It's still a very difficult task, but I must tell you that I am much more positive now than I was before I started this dialogue.

Let's hope that the efforts we'll now see from Member States stepping up their help towards Greece in this moment might be the first important step towards a new solidarity mechanism that will give meaningful help to a Member State under pressure.