The Greek government is confident that the second bailout program review will be complete on schedule and as such, an agreement to secure the sustainability of the debt must be reached by the end of the year. This in turn will allow Greece to return to the markets as well as be included in the ECB’s quantitative easing program.
In relation to the refugee crisis, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asked for effective solidarity instead of flexible or optional solidarity during his speech at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday which discussed migration.
PM Tsipras argued that “Greece is carrying all of Europe’s burden on the refugee issue”, adding that only 5,200 relocations to other member-states have been carried, instead of the 66,000 that have been planned. “We didn’t do the EU-Turkey deal to stop the flow of refugees, but to replace the illegal flows with legal flows. If some people want to seal off all flows, then this is against our common principles” he told EU leaders.
Concerning the review of the common European asylum system, the PM commented that it is “unacceptable” as it burdens solely the countries of first entrance. The Greek Premier also said the EU must give Turkey a clear answer about the Visa issue, so as not to give Turkish President Erdogan excuses to not uphold the agreement. On the Visa issue, he also said EU must not hold “double standards for Cyprus”.
A working dinner is currently underway in which EU leaders will discuss EU’s relations with Russia and the Brexit. On Friday, Tsipras will meet with French President Francois Hollande at 10:00 and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at 10:30. The time of the meeting with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has not been set yet.
