European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Abandons Greece, bets on FYROM to Control Refugee Flow

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Gregory Pappas

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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Abandons Greece, bets on FYROM to Control Refugee Flow

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wants to redraw the borders of Europe and bolster the continent’s southern flank on the southern border of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, effectively cutting Greece out of the continent— while simultaneously transforming Greece into a walled prison for tens of thousands of refugees.

In a letter sent Monday to Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar, Juncker supported his country’s plan for the EU to reinforce FYROM’s border with Greece to prevent refugees from reaching the northern European countries.

The letter was obtained by Politico, which first reported on the matter.

“I welcome your suggestion,” Juncker wrote to Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar, assuring him of the Commission’s support for his plan for all EU countries to “provide assistance to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia authorities to support controls on the border with Greece through the secondment of police/law enforcement officers, and the provision of equipment.”

As FYROM isn’t a member of the EU, Juncker said EU countries would have to reach bilateral agreements with the government in Skopje to dispatch police to the border with Greece. The rules in place for the EU’s border protection agency only allowed for missions within the EU, not for the “deployment of officers in the framework of a Frontex joint operation on the territory of a third country.”

Greece’s minister for migration, Ioannis Mouzalas, told the Financial Times Monday that Athens had not been consulted on the Slovenian plan.

“We do not intend to become a cemetery of souls here. We cannot understand what kind of policy it is that a country would close its borders with Greece,” Mouzalas said.

The Politico report also criticized Greece, stating that countries along the Western Balkan migration route, whether EU members or not, must stop “waving through refugees without informing a neighbouring country,” which is “not acceptable.”

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