Paris terror attacks: Jean Claude Juncker warns European leaders ‘do not mix

Following the attacks in Paris, France closed its borders and declared a state of emergency.

On Sunday, a senior European leader urged calm and admonished politicians not to conflate refugees with violent extremists. French President François Hollande did not attend the summit due to the Friday attacks and sent Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius as his representative.

Mr. Juncker repeated that he wanted to be “crystal clear that we should not mix the different categories of people coming to Europe”.

The country has already seen surge in attacks against migrants and refugee shelters.

News that one of the terrorist attackers in Paris could have been a Syrian asylum seeker is feeding into the debate over the migrant crisis in Europe. Four days later, he crossed into Serbia from Macedonia.

Warsaw will not accept European Union quotas for relocating refugees without “security guarantees”, ministers from Poland’s incoming conservative government said hours after the terrorist attacks in Paris.

While it is unclear whether the passport was genuine, trafficking in fake Syrian passports has increased as hundreds of thousands try to obtain refugee status, the chief of the European Union border agency Frontex has said, the AP notes.

Under the plan, agreed by the previous government, Poland was to take in 4,500 refugees, over and above a few 2,000 it has already accepted.

“In the wake of the tragic events in Paris, Poland doesn’t see the political possibilities to implement a decision on the relocation of refugees”, Konrad Szymanski, Poland’s incoming European affairs minister, was quoted as saying on Saturday on the Wpolityce.pl website, according to Bloomberg. Ms. Merkel has been the strongest voice in Europe for opening the door to those fleeing war and conflict and who deserve protection under worldwide law.

Soeder, whose party has been critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy on migrants, added that, “Paris changed everything” and that, “This is no time for uncontrolled immigration”.

“In the German state of Bavaria, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic party, Markus Soder, tweeted, “#Paris Attacks changes everything.

Right-wing parties across the continent – wary of immigration even under normal circumstances – are likely to seize on any link between the Paris attacks and migrants to bolster public support.

As the death and injury tolls from the carnage claimed by Islamic State were still being tallied, France’s far-right National Front leader, Marine Le Pen, was calling for French citizens to “take back control” of their borders and “annihilate Islamist fundamentalism”.

In Croatia, which has become the main Balkan country of transit for migrants, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic reminded that “closing (borders) and barbed wire does not prevent these kind of tragedies”.