A number of German politicians have accused Greece of ignoring its responsibility to protect the external borders of the European Union, from which refugees continue to flood Europe using the Balkan route, German magazine Spiegel Online wrote.
"If a European agreement on the refugee issue won't be reached, Greece should be excluded from the Schengen Agreement," CDU member Wolfgang Steiger told German newspaper Die Welt.
According to him, Greece is failing to protect the external borders of the European Union and is responsible for the deteriorating situation with migrants.
"We have no time to wait, when Greece will start to adhere to European standards. If the country does not fulfil its obligations, the Schengen area should ‘move' towards Central Europe," Steiger said.
Recently, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia announced their readiness to support Macedonia's closure of its border with Greece, thus blocking the Balkan route. However, the closure of the border would lead to the situation in which Greece would be practically isolated from other countries of the Schengen area.
According to him, the exclusion or isolation of one of the EU member states would be nothing more than an illusory solution "poisoning the European debate."
"One cannot just redefine the borders of Europe, regardless of the states concerned," Gabriel wrote, stressing that the "efficient process of registration, adequate accommodation and fair distribution of refugees" are more important for the resolution of the current refugee crisis than such radical steps.
Over the last few months the European states have been arguing about the distribution of refugees and other means to protect the EU's external borders. The issue is to be discussed during negotiations at the upcoming EU summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
