EC spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said the EC was following the situation regarding the influx of migrants into Croatia, recalling that EUR 71 million was available to Croatia from the Asylum and Migration Fund for the 2014-2020 period so that it could cope with migration and security challenges.
She quoted Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos as saying in Budapest earlier in the day that the EC was ready to help Croatia should it request additional emergency assistance in order to be able to cope with more refugees, who are fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
We did so previously as well for a certain number of countries. Every member-state can also activate the Civil Protection Mechanism within which other member-states can provide any kind of financial assistance under EC coordination, as was done in Hungary's case, Andreeva said.
She said that the European external border management agency Frontex had the possibility to deploy rapid reaction border teams, a mechanism intended for fast operational assistance in a limited period of time, which can be activated at the request of a member-state facing an emergency situation on the EU's external border when a large number of citizens of third countries try to enter its territory.
The mechanism was already activated in 2010 at Greece's request for assistance on its border with Turkey.
When asked if Croatia could seek the activation of that mechanism, Andreeva answered positively.
She also said that a new proposal for the redistribution of refugees, which would also refer to refugees who have arrived in Croatia, was possible.
The EC's initial proposal from May refers to the relocation of 40,000 refugees staying in Italy and Greece, and the second one, from September, refers to 120,000 refugees, including also those in Hungary. Those two proposals are on the table and there is always a possibility of proposing one more mechanism for the relocation of refugees, said Andreeva.
EU sources say that the possible establishment of a corridor in Croatia for refugees to continue their journey to their desired destinations could constitute a violation of EU laws and its member-countries' obligations.
Asked what Croatia could do if refugees did not want to stay in the country, spokesman Margaritis Schinas said that the EU was there to advise the Croatian government, which was a legitimate government and made decisions.
The issue of asylum in the EU is regulated by the Dublin Regulation which the ongoing refugee crisis has shown to be completely at odds with reality. The Regulation says that the first member-country which an asylum seeker enters is obliged to consider his asylum application.
Refugees arriving in Croatia have previously passed through EU territory, most of them when passing through Greece. In most cases, they were not registered there so their return to Greece is not an option because there is no evidence that it was Greece where they entered EU territory. Also, a fair number of refugees do not want to be registered in countries where they do not want to stay and most of them want to reach Germany or Sweden as their destination countries. For that purpose, they often destroy their personal documents so that they cannot be registered.
Under the Dublin Regulation, Croatia could return refugees who do not want to apply for asylum in Croatia either to Greece, the first EU country of entry, which was not possible when Hungary tried to do it, or to Serbia, the third country from which they came.
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, called for September 23 an extraordinary informal meeting of the heads of state or government of the 28 EU member-states to discuss the refugee crisis. The member-states' ministers of the interior last week failed to agree on a plan for the relocation of 120,000 refugees staying in Greece, Italy and Hungary. Even though most member-states support the EC proposal, a number of central and eastern European countries strongly oppose mandatory quotas for the reception of refugees.