EU Commission: Greece seriously neglected control of EU's external borders

Greece has “seriously neglected” its obligations to safeguard the EU's external borders, the EU Commission said in a report released Wednesday. If the report is adopted by a majority of the member states, Greece will have three months to implement actions, EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said. “If the necessary action is not being taken and deficiencies persist, there is a possibility to ... allow member states to temporarily close their borders,” Dombrovskis warned.

The Executive Director of the EU border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, however, recently told German daily Die Welt in an interview that “border management by itself will not be able to make much of a difference, most of all we have to take care of the root causes why so many migrants are currently pushing towards Europe.” See also our cepInput on the empirical and legal aspects of the refugee crisis.