Europe must find a way to tackle refugee crisis without abandoning its values, Timmermans says on Kos

“If we forget this, we forget who we are and we leave Europe to the xenophobes, the extremists, who will destroy it,” he said after a press conference on the Aegean island of Kos, after a meeting on the refugee crisis and the waves of migrants and refugees arriving daily, held at the Kos town hall.

"There is no European Union country that has not been affected by this humanitarian crisis and by the people fighting for their lives," Timmermans said, adding that the solution must be sought to the problem as a whole, not on a piecemeal basis.

The Commissioner stressed that island's like Kos, which have borne the brunt of the massive refugee influx of recent months, cannot be left to cope unaided. Expressing his support for the island's residents and Greeks generally, Timmermans said his visit signalled the Commission's will to tackle difficulties head on, going directly to the heart of the problem to provide solutions.

EU Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said the government must work even more closely with local authorities in tackling the refugee crisis. He noted that the islands were the first contact with Europe for arriving refugees, who must be met with respect and dignity.

Avramopoulos announced that a special centre will be set up in Piraeus to sort refugees from economic migrants and said that reception areas must be set up on the larger Greek islands. He also underlined the need to quickly set up a management authority to receive EU funding "so that the disbursement of these sums can begin immediately, the same day."

He said Greece would in the coming days receive the first 33-million-euro installment of some 474 million euros of EU funding being given to the country to help tackle the influx, while countries on the front line were also eligible to receive additional emergency funding.