Press statement by President Donald Tusk after his meeting with Miro Cerar, Prime Minister of Slovenia

Let me start by thanking Prime Minister Cerar for his invitation, hospitality and for welcoming me in Bled. This place is one of the most beautiful in Europe and the world. Unfortunately, the reality is not as nice as this place.

My visit to Slovenia, and later to Croatia, is the first one after the summer break. But the challenges facing Europe take no holidays. First of all, we talked at length about the ongoing migration crisis. This is the most important issue for Europe today. The summer has confirmed that migration will remain a key issue for Europe in the years to come.

The European Union cannot and should not be blamed for the migration crisis, but we need to do more at European level to solve it. We have to alleviate the unbearable human suffering and tragedies that have become almost daily news stories in Europe now. In short, the European Union has to help provide solutions to the major problems facing European citizens and countries today.

And this is exactly what we are trying to do. In April I called an emergency summit on the migration crisis in the Mediterranean. In June, the European Council agreed a new policy for relocation, resettlement and return that is now being implemented. In October the European Council is meeting again. In November, I will chair the Malta Conference where European and African leaders will meet and try to find practical solutions to this shared problem. Likewise will there be a high-level conference on migration along the Western Balkans route. And only yesterday, the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council called an emergency meeting of Justice and Home Affairs ministers to assess the situation on the ground, discuss next steps - to strengthen the European response. This will include Frontex, the EU border agency, the European Asylum Support Office and more work on our return policy, international cooperation as well as investigation and measures to prevent trafficking of migrants. Today this may be the most urgent challenge. As we have witnessed both in Austria and in the Mediterranean, human trafficking and smuggling of migrants are not only a dirty business, it is in fact mass murder. And smugglers today are potential mass murderers. We must do everything we can to stop it.

So a lot of work is ongoing. But the truth is that this is a very complex problem and requires a complex set of actions. There are no quick-fixes. Had there been, they would have been used long time ago. The reasons for the unprecedented levels of migration are war, conflict, failing states and poverty. I have no doubt that in the short term, we need to concentrate our efforts on containing the inflow of migrants - obviously in a humane way respecting all legal obligations.

Today, the Prime Minister and I had a good exchange on what the European Union is already doing - in terms of assistance and migration - and how we can target our efforts even more. This is as much a problem in the South as in the Western Balkans.

Finally, we also discussed the situation in the Western Balkans. Slovenia's experience and knowledge of the region is of great value. The Prime Minister and I shared ideas how the European Union can and should help create more stability and prosperity. And we agree that enlargement should remain a strong priority for the EU. Thank you.