Juncker calls leaders’ meeting on migration

Leaders of selected EU states plus Balkan neighbors to discuss ongoing crisis.

European leaders will meet on Sunday to discuss the migration crisis in the Western Balkans. Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said on Wednesday morning he was calling the meeting “in view of the unfolding emergency in the countries along the Western Balkans migratory route.”

Juncker said there was a need for “much greater cooperation, more extensive consultation and immediate operational action.”

At a press conference later Wednesday in Berlin, Angela Merkel’s spokesman said the informal meeting on Sunday was going to happen “at the suggestion” of the German chancellor, stressing the importance of coordinating international and national efforts, which would also include cooperation between Greece and Turkey. “This does not mean joint patrols,” he added.

Not all EU countries are involved in the meeting, and some of the EU’s neighbors have been invited to attend. Those invited are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. They will meet on Sunday from 4 pm to 7 pm, with the meeting followed by a working dinner in the Berlaymont, the Commission’s Brussels headquarters.

Also invited are Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, representatives of Luxembourg, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as representatives of the asylum agency EASO and border agency Frontex.

One of the main topics on the agenda will be discussing how to protect the external border of the EU, according to Merkel’s spokesman. The idea of the meeting was to adopt resolutions that could be implemented immediately, he said.

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