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Dutch FM calls on EU member states to implement agreements on immigrants

Xinhua, February 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders called on the European Union (EU) member states to work towards implementing the agreements that have already been made in order to cope with the immigration crisis.

"It is important that we make progress in the next one to two months on what has already been agreed," said Koenders on Saturday, while talking to the press after a two-day informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers.

Reducing the number of refugees coming to Europe and coping with the immigration crisis is a key goal for the Netherlands, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

"We have to make sure that the decisions on the hot spots in Italy and Greece are implemented. We have to give full support to the Greek and to the Italian government to deliver these decisions," the Dutch foreign minister said, referring to the need for Turkey to proceed with necessary measures in order to keep refugees in the region following the EU-Turkey action plan which was agreed in November.

Koenders said key aspects of the immigration issue and in particular "how to speed up the implementation of measures will be discussed during the upcoming meeting between Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Hague on Wednesday. He also called on Turkey to abide to international agreements concerning asylum seekers.

For the Dutch foreign minister, securing strong external borders is crucial in defending the passport free Schengen zone. "You cannot function in Schengen if you don't have strong external borders," he said, stressing that the Dutch government would work to make sure that the passport free Schengen zone will remain intact.

The hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants pouring into the EU have put the bloc's open borders under unbearable pressure with more and more countries introducing temporary border controls.

Several European Union member countries have asked the European Commission to "prepare the legal and practical basis" for the extension of temporary border controls within the Schengen free-travel zone. Under the Schengen Borders Code, a EU member state may implement temporary border controls, but not for more than a total period of six months.

Among members of the free travel zone (22 EU members and four non-EU countries), Germany, Sweden, Austria, France, Denmark and non-EU member Norway have reintroduced temporary border checks. Enditem