Germany is willing to give Greece financial backing to deal with the unprecedented refugee crisis on its own soil instead of exporting it north towards central Europe.
With thousands of refugees pouring into Greece every day and the economy still sputtering, officials in Berlin indicated that Germany would come up with support for Athens in return for a more robust effort to control its borders in the Aegean Sea.
Stressing that there was no connection between any support linked to refugees and the bailout deal agreed this year, as had been suggested in German media, the government admitted Greece’s economy was too delicate for it to be able to deal with the crisis on its own.
“We want to support Greece in this, so that it is able to meet its duties as a member of the EU to protect its borders in the most effective way,” the government spokesman Steffen Seibert told journalists in Berlin. » | Kate Connolly in Berlin and Helena Smith in Athens | Friday, October 16, 2015
