The refugee crisis was among the key issues discussed at a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on the sidelines of a meeting of the conservative European People’s Party in Brussels.
According to New Democracy, Mitsotakis stressed the pressing need to expedite procedures for the approval of refugee asylum applications.
This, he said, is necessary for the more effective implementation of the refugee burden-sharing agreement between member-states, but it will also permit the more rapid readmission of non-documented migrants to Turkey.
In September, 2016, EU leaders had approved a plan for the distribution of 120,000 refugees among the member-states.
Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are vehemently opposed, a position they reiterated at the EU summit today.
In the discussion with Merkel, Mitsotakis argued for the need to revise the Dublin III regulation, with the aim of establishing uniform asylum policies within the EU.
Merkel agreed to try to push in that direction, according to New Democracy.
