"What Turkey is doing is certainly another in a row of blackmail policies to which the EU must not give in," Picula emphasised on the margins of an interparliamentary conference in Zagreb. The two-day Inter-parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CFSP-CSDP), began today in Zagreb.
Picula also hopes that it would not be necessary to send Croatian Army to the border due to the threat of a new migrant wave, but he said that it all depended on how the situation would develop in the next few weeks.
"EU is now playing the role of an interested observer who is trying to rule out the threat, and real talks are conducted between the (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin and President Erdogan, and at this moment, the outcome of the Syrian situation depends on them in a larger measure than on the course of action the EU will take," Picula said.
Picula claims that until the EU decides whether Turkey is "a strategic partner or a strategic threat", the Union will "be facing the consequences of a policy which worries the whole of the EU, and not only the neighbouring countries".
MEP Zeljana Zovko said that the situation which the Western Europe was facing was extremely worrisome.
She said that the role of the interparliamentary conference was important because it opened a diplomatic dialogue on challenges in Europe.
"Communication is necessary, and all acts of communication must end in a solution. What I see is that there is a wish to reach a higher level of dialogue. There is no place for blackmail," Zovko emphasised.
Leading EU officials are visiting the Greek-Turkish border, where, according to UN data, there are 13,000 migrants who are trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.