EU agrees migration plan with Balkan leaders. EC President Juncker issues statement with 17 proposals

The European Union and Balkan leaders have agreed to a plan that foresees large reception centers in a bid to manage migrant flows. The centers would be established along the route from Greece to Germany, dw.com reports.
Speaking at a joint news conference, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the eight EU countries on the migrants’ route into Europe, together with Serbia, Macedonia and Albania, had agreed to “increase capacity to take in migrants to 100,000 places in Greece and the Balkans.”
“The only way to restore order to this situation is to slow down the uncontrolled flow of these people,” Juncker said.
Half of the places in reception centers will be in Greece, with the other 50,000 on the route through the Balkans – in countries such as Macedonia and Serbia.
The plan also aims to put a stop to countries facilitating the movement of migrants to other countries’ borders. “We have made very clear that the policy of simply waving people through must be stopped,” Juncker said.
Other key points of the agreement include stepping up the activities of the EU’s border agency Frontex, and expanded information gathering and sharing on migrants entering the EU, as well as on their movement once in the bloc.
Juncker, speaking after the Brussels meeting early on Monday, further noted that four hundred police officers would be deployed to Slovenia within a week. They are to help the Alpine country cope with the overwhelming number of people arriving at its border.
On Sunday, attending the Brussels meeting, Merkel said refugees needed “relief, sensible shelter and facilities to wait and rest.”
“Europe has to show itself a continent of values and solidarity,” Merkel said, adding: “This evening was a building stone in the edifice,” the German Chancellor said according to wort.lu.
Juncker issued a statement with 17 proposals, including an undertaking that no country will let refugees through to an adjoining state without first getting their neighbour’s agreement.
The 10 leaders from the EU who attended the mini summit were from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Romania (President Klaus Iohannis), Slovenia and Sweden.