Prague, Jan 19 (CTK) – A “reserve border system” should be formed along the Bulgaria-Macedonia line if the efforts to reinforce the external protection of the Schengen area failed, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka told journalists yesterday.
He emphasised the need to form a joint European coast and border guard and the need for the observance of agreements by Turkey.
Simultaneously, the interior ministers from the Visegrad Four (V4) group including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia agreed in Prague yesterday on sending a joint mission to Macedonia, which will specify possibilities of the cooperation in protecting the Macedonian border.
According to Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD), the solution to the migrant crisis primarily lies in pushing for an agreement of the parties involved in Syria.
“Without putting an end to the war in Syria, about a half of the motivation for the current strong migrant wave would remain in force,” Sobotka said.
He said he also considers it necessary for Turkey to regulate migration and fight against people-traffickers.
“We need to reinforce the outer protection of the Schengen border, form a common European coast and border guard,” Sobotka said.
“Well, if nothing of that were effective, we would have to create a certain reserve border system along the Bulgaria-Macedonia line and prepare technical measures there to make us capable of regulating migration in that area, if its regulation failed in Turkey or if it failed in Greece,” Sobotka said.
Czech parties in parliament have largely welcomed the idea he presented.
“It seems to be quite a logical solution,” said Ondrej Benesik (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), head of the lower house European committee, and added that in other words, a way is being sought of how to oust Greece from Schengen.
Marek Zenisek, first deputy head of the opposition TOP 09 party, said he believes that a reinforcement of the northern border of Greece would improve the control of the situation.
Communist (KSCM) deputy chairman Jiri Dolejs said such a solution is technically imaginable, but it is a difficult task from the diplomatic point of view.
At the talks in Brussels, the Czech Republic wants to continue pushing for the implementation of real steps that would help cope with the migrant crisis. Moreover, the Czech Republic is ready to help the others, Sobotka said.
However, the trouble with Greece and Italy is that they are only rarely capable of saying what concretely can be done for them, Sobotka said.
It is mainly Athens that often comes under the criticism from Czech as well as other European politicians for its failure to cope with the migrant wave.
If “a reserve border system” were established, as mentioned by Sobotka, the EU would no longer need to rely on Greece in this respect.
According to the Czech Interior Ministry, V4 experts are to leave for Macedonia in two weeks.
“The goal of the mission is to find out the real needs and extent of cooperation in the border protection and the control of migration along the West Balkan migrant route,” the ministry´s spokeswoman Lucie Novakova said.
She said the Czech Republic will coordinate the mission, to which representatives of Serbia and Slovenia will be invited.
The Czech Defence Ministry, for its part, does not plan to send any aid to Macedonia now, though Macedonia turned to the ministry with a request for material support some time ago.
Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) told CTK yesterday that no further detailed information has come from Macedonia since, which is why the ministry is not considering sending in any material now.
Its further steps will depend on the further development of the situation, Stropnicky said.
rtj/dr/kva
