Statement following a phone call between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Croatia's Prime Minister Zora Milanović

Met dank overgenomen van Europese Commissie (EC) i, gepubliceerd op vrijdag 18 september 2015.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker i and Croatia's Prime Minister Zora Milanović i spoke on the phone this evening. They discussed the current refugee crisis and in particular the challenges Croatian authorities and the EU as a whole are facing at the moment.

President Juncker affirmed his personal support and offered EU technical and logistical assistance to Prime Minister Milanović to cope with the current situation. They agreed on the importance of treating all those seeking refuge from war, terror or oppression with human dignity and in line with Europe’s common values. They also underlined the need that all EU Member States respect EU law to the full.

Both stressed the need to enhance the protection of the EU's external border, to step up EU assistance in our immediate neighbourhood and to make swift progress on operational solidarity between the EU Member States to cope with the refugee crisis, on the basis of the initiatives and proposals made by the Commission last week. The EU Interior Ministers Council next Tuesday should be used to reach agreement as much as possible on pragmatic and swiftly operational joint European measures.

The President and the Prime Minister also agreed to continue their constructive discussion in the margins of the informal European summit next week Wednesday in Brussels.

STATEMENT/15/5685

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