European and Balkan leaders meeting to discuss escalating refugee crisis

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a press statement he is pleased with the agreed measures “to ensure people are not left to fend for themselves in the rain and cold”. “This is a building block, but we need to take many further steps”.

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, acknowledged that the meeting was about managing the situation rather than tackling the root cause; any real solution, she said, would have to involve Ankara. In the past week alone, more than 62,000 migrants have arrived in Slovenia, which has a population of just two million.

Leaders have agreed to create space for 100,000 more migrants at refugee centres as they desperately try to stem the flow. They now mainly travel from Turkey to Greece and then go north to Macedonia and Serbia before entering Croatia and move on to Slovenia and Austria.

Countries in the Balkans will set up refugee centers that can accommodate up to 50,000 people.

“If we don’t deliver concrete action, I believe Europe will start falling apart”, he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The UNHCR warns that many refugees who are waiting at the border of Serbia will suffer as winter approaches.

Prior to the talks, Mr. Milanovic also rejected calls to stop moving refugees onwards to other countries.

The reception places, to be built with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), will be essential to providing shelter for refugees and to speed up their registration process, Juncker said.

“We will not be able to endure this for weeks if we do not get help”, the prime minister said, calling on neighbour Croatia not to continue pushing migrants onward to Slovenia on their way to other countries in the EU.

The text states that it is necessary that countries affected by the refugee crisis cooperate, exchange information and restrict the movement of those refugees who should not cross the border of another country in an illegal manner, to avoid a humanitarian tragedy.

European leaders met Sunday at an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss the handling of tens of thousands of migrants passing through the Balkans to western parts of Europe.

“Until today, it was hard to find a solution because a series of countries adopted a stance of “not in my own backyard”, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.

“Deploying in Slovenia 400 police officers and essential equipment within a week, through bilateral support”.

Almost 250,000 people have passed through the Balkans on their way to Western Europe since mid-September.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia would not “put up any walls” like Hungary’s new razor wire-topped border fences.