Spotlight: EU, Balkan countries embraced with influx of refugees, calling for responsibilities

The influx of refugees in recent months to the EU countries via Balkan countries have raised great concerns across those countries, while some leaders on Monday called for greater responsibilities from the EU countries.

German and Greek authorities are responsible for the EU migrant crisis, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was quoted by local media as saying on Monday.

"I am sure that if Germany offered less money (monthly payments) to migrants from the Western Balkans, the inflow (of refugees) would reduce significantly," Vucic said in an interview with the German Handelsblatt newspaper.

Vucic also condemned Greek local authorities' "unacceptable" reluctance to register refugees entering the European Union.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande called Monday for common European asylum policy for the worst refugee crisis at a joint press conference after their meeting in Berlin in view of the current wave of refugees entering Europe.

Merkel pointed out that the common right of asylum, which exits in many parts of Europe, was not implemented at present.

Germany and France, she said, expected that all member states of the European Union (EU) would fully implement the right of asylum, including registration of refugees as well as minimum standards for accommodation and health care.

Merkel and Hollande called for common European standards for the repatriation of refugees and the definition of safe countries of origin. They also urged a fair distribution of those people who have been granted a residence permit in the EU.

Speaking of the situation in Greece and Italy, the two leaders agreed that EU countries should make joint efforts to help build registration centers and provide staff for them in the two countries as European gateway for asylum-seekers and refugees arriving from sea.

"This must be done quickly, in the current year. We cannot accept any delay," stressed Merkel.

Those remarks came after the huge migrant influx has caused serious problems for the small Balkan countries, most of whom have neither resources nor facilities to accommodate migrants in such huge numbers.

One of the main doors to the "promised land" of Europe is the route Greece-Macedonia-Serbia. The other route goes through Italy.

Faced with the situation, Macedonian authorities declared a "state of emergency" on Thursday on its southern and northern borderline, sending off both police and armed forces to control the increased migrant influx and transit.

Now migrants are allowed to enter the country after being stopped for three days but only in limited number every day and priority is given to vulnerable groups -- women, children and elderly.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said Saturday that the EU's help for tackling the migrant crisis in the Balkans so far has been only "symbolic" and the main weight falls on Macedonian authorities, "not only financial but also humane aspect."

"We expect a humanitarian response by the European Union as soon as possible, reaching out to all of the countries affected by the migrant crisis and will distribute the weight of the challenge on the principle of solidarity," the spokesperson of the Macedonian Ministry of Interior Ivo Kotevski told Xinhua.

Last weekend some 4,400 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coasts on Saturday, one of the biggest operation carried out so far under the EU Triton rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea, according to media reports.

So far this year, more than 2,300 people have died in the attempt to reach Europe by boat, according to the International Organization for Migration.

In Italy alone, some 104,000 migrants have arrived in the country since January from the Middle East as well as African and south Asian countries. Last year, the country had seen an influx of over 170,000 people.

The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that nearly 125,000 migrants have arrived in Greece's Aegean Islands this year, a fourfold increase from 2014. Endi