Greece cannot handle refugee flows unaided, President Pavlopoulos tells Timmermans, Avramopoulos

He thanked Timmermans for his visit to Greece and the island of Kos, in order to witness the scale of the problems at close hand.

Pavlopoulos said that Greece, despite being in a pre-election period with a caretaker government, will meet its obligations under EU pacts and laws. At the same time, he noted that it would be unfair for Greece to have to cope with the problem alone, since this was a European issue that was not confined only to the European south.

Referring to the heart-wrenching images of the drowned Syrian boy on a Turkish beach, Pavlopoulos said that this had acted as a kind of general awakening of conscience, illustrating that migration was a global issue. Europe must show the solidarity that was a building block of the EU, he added, noting that the European Commission and its people will help accelerate implementation of the Immigration and Asylum Pact, chiefly by reinforcing Frontex and the policing of EU borders, as well as on the major issue of asylum.

Pavlopoulos noted that the decisions made at the June EU summit on migration must be reviewed, having been proved inadequate in practice.

Replying, Timmermans said that there have to be immediate structural solutions for dealing with migration flows, repeating that "we can succeed jointly and united, or we can fail each in our own way."

"We will not ask Greece or the residents of the islands to deal with the problem alone," he added, while noting the "especially encouraging" cooperation with Greece's caretaker government over the past two days.

He said the Commission was almost ready to announce the start of operation of a hub for the management of migration flows in Piraeus, to coordinate the movement of migrants from the islands.

"Once these new administrative structures are in place and operational, we will be able to unfreeze European funding designed precisely to provide support to Greece in the effort to manage migration flows," Timmermans said. An agreement had been reached with the caretaker government to have these structures up and running by September 14, in time for the next European Council in Brussels, he added.

He also praised the residents on the island of Kos for the "very strong solidarity" shown to the refugees, saying this should make Greeks proud, but admitted that the situation on Kos and Lesvos remained difficult.