European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in Tallinn on 24 August, that Europe had to work together to tackle the challenge of the migrant crisis rocking the continent.
We have to realise that the blame game is not bringing any kind of positive result for any of us, she said. The main point is not saying who is doing his homework or not. The point is how do we face together the challenge and how do we manage together the issue?
Again, from a European perspective we are asking Turkey to do more. Turkey itself is hosting millions of refugees, we should be aware of that and we are already supporting Turkey in this. But again, what we should do more is to work together with Turkey and other countries, not only to support them in hosting this large number of refugees, but also to help in the management of the flow and most of all to try to solve the root cause, she said after meeting with Estonian prime minister Taavi Roivas, foreign minister Marina Kaljurand and heads of various Estonian foreign missions.
The European Commission will make €8m (£6m, $9m) available for emergency assistance in the Western Balkans and Turkey, while €90,000 in humanitarian aid will go to Macedonia. Overall for this year, emergency funding has doubled to €50m, the Commission says.
I would say that we are working very closely with the countries of the western Balkans to tackle this issue. But again as I mentioned this is less related to foreign policy and more to the relation with the region and to the European Union as such, Mogherini said.
Almost 50,000 migrants arrived in Greece in July alone, more than in all of last year, according to the EU. Italy and Hungary have also witnessed record arrivals and all are calling for help from other EU members.
