(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) European Union and Balkan leaders meeting in Brussels agreed on a 17-point plan to cooperate on managing flows of refugees through the Balkan peninsula.
The leaders agreed to slow the chaotic flow of people moving up from Greece and provide much more shelter as winter looms after spending Sunday lashing out at each other on handling of Europe's greatest immigration crisis since World War II.
"We have made very clear that the policy of simply waving people through must be stopped," the commission's president, Jean-Claude Juncker, told reporters referring to agreements to cooperate and avoid unilateral national measures that have contributed to chaos throughout the region.
The German chancellor Angela Merkel, who pushed for the meeting to be convened, said "Europe must show it is a continent of values, a continent of solidarity. This is a building block, but we need to take many further steps", she added.
Among the measures agreed between the 11 nations were that 100,000 places in reception centers should be made available along the route from Greece towards Germany, half in Greece and half in the countries to the north. The UN refugee agency would help establish them.
The leaders also agreed that the EU border agency Frontex would step up its activities on the Greek-Macedonian border to ensure that people trying to cross would be registered.
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