Initiatives
To this end, Mr. Avramopoulos proposes the
implementation of the decisions reached at the
Summit of March 18th, 2016, while Mr. Maarten
Verwey (Netherlands) has been appointed to act
as the EU Coordinator to implement the EU-
Turkey agreement: “Once this agreement starts
being implemented, initially with many difficulties
since every new beginning has its delicate and
challenging aspects, we will have achieved some-
thing very important. The flows to Europe, and of
course to the Greek islands, through Turkey, must
stop. On the other hand, we must crack down on
human trafficking rigs, which have been very
active recently. This is why cooperation between
Europe and Turkey is imperative. I want to believe
that we are on the right track. That said, now is
the time for all member states to prove that they
actually mean what they say about solidarity and
responsibility.” The first messages are positive:
“France and Germany have already started send-
ing personnel and equipment, to be followed by
the Netherlands and other countries, so that the
mechanism will soon start to produce results and
those who are not eligible for international protec-
tion will start being returned to Turkey. The Greek
side has swiftly taken action to meet its commit-
ments. The hotspots are already in place, recep-
tion areas are operative; we only have to get the
message through to these unfortunate people
who chose the hard and dangerous route to
Europe.”
It should be noted that Mr. Verwey, who has been
in Greece throughout this period, is responsible
for coordinating the actions between EU and
Turkey and organising the work of the 4,000 staff
of European officials (interpreters, judges, reloca-
tion officers, security officers etc.) that will be
needed from Greece, the EU member states,
Frontex and the European Asylum Support Office
(EASO) in order to implement the Agreement.
Trade with Greece
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