On her first visit to Athens since 2014, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the EU refugee pact must be implemented and Greece must continue reforming after it emerged from eight years of bailouts.
“GREECE NEEDS TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION”
She also said, after meeting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, that she expected Greece would be able to return to financial markets and that Germany supported those efforts. “We will continue working constructively with Greece to improve the situation,” Merkel said after talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Thousands of people remain stranded in inadequate conditions in refugee camps in Greece, waiting for their asylum applications to be processed in line with the pact which sought to stymie the inflow of refugees and migrants in 2016. Under the deal, only confirmed refugees are allowed to proceed toward the European Union, while economic migrants are being sent back.
The processing, however, is too slow.