Greece 'facing exclusion' from Schengen passport-free zone
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Berlin (AFP) - Greece faced fresh pressure Saturday over its
handling of the migrant crisis after Austrian Interior Minister Johanna
Mikl-Leitner warned that Athens faced "temporary exclusion" from the
EU's passport-free Schengen zone.
This week Greece slammed a Financial Times report saying
several European ministers and senior EU officials believed threatening
suspension from Schengen could persuade Greece to protect its borders more
effectively.
Junior interior minister for migration Yiannis Mouzalas said
the report contained "falsehoods and distortions" but Mikl-Leitner
said temporary exclusion was a real possibility.
"If the Athens government does not finally do more to
secure the (EU's) external borders then one must openly discuss Greece's
temporary exclusion from the Schengen zone," Mikl-Leitner said in an
interview with German daily Die Welt.
"It is a myth that the Greco-Turkish border cannot be
controlled," Mikl-Leitner said.
"When a Schengen signatory does not permanently fulfil
its obligations and only hesitatingly accepts aid then we should not rule out
that possibility," she added.
"The patience of many Europeans has reached its limit
... We have talked a lot, now we must act. It is about protecting stability,
order and security in Europe."
Germany's Steinmeier criticised Vienna's warning however.
"There won't be any solution to the refugee crisis if
solidarity disappears," he said.
"On the contrary, we must work together and concentrate
all our efforts to fight against the causes that are pushing the refugees into
flight, to reinforce the EU's outer borders and to achieve a fair
redistribution (of asylum seekers) within Europe."
- 'Make or break' -
Cash-strapped Greece has been under fire for months from its
EU partners over its attempts to manage the largest flow of migrants in decades
as hundreds of thousands flee war and repression.
Of over a million refugees and migrants who reached Europe's
shores last year, the vast majority first entered the continent through Greece
after perilous sea voyages from Turkey before heading north, with many hoping
for a new life in Germany.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde added
her voice to Schengen concerns.
"The refugee crisis is a bit of a make or break, from
my personal perspective," Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum in the
Swiss ski resort of Davos. Asked if it endangered Schengen, she said:
"Yes, I think so."
The EU last month ruled out excluding Greece from Schengen,
with Luxembourg's Minister of Immigration Jean Asselborn observing that
"it is not legally possible to exclude a state from the Schengen
zone."
But the issue came to the fore once again with Wednesday's
FT report.
But a spokesman for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
denied the EU made any threat to that effect.
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