BELGRADE (Serbia), October 26 (SeeNews) – The European Commission said on Monday that the heads of state or government of Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia have agreed on a 17-point action plan to improve cooperation on border management and step up the provision of humanitarian support to asylum seekers along the Western Balkan Route.
The action plan, sealed over the weekend, includes measures that will be operational as of Monday, including the establishment of contact points to ensure a permanent exchange of information, providing shelter to refugees, managing migration flows together, and increased efforts to manage borders, the Commission said in a press release.
Leaders agreed to improve communication of information on the rights and obligations of refugees and migrants and to monitor their agreed commitments under the action plan on a weekly basis, the Commission said.
"Neighbours should work together not against each other. Refugees need to be treated in a humane manner along the length of the Western Balkans route to avoid a humanitarian tragedy in Europe. I am therefore pleased that today we were able to jointly agree on a 17-point plan of pragmatic and operational measures to ensure people are not left to fend for themselves in the rain and cold," the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said following the meeting held on Sunday.
The Commission added that Croatia has also activated the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism for material support to help cope with the large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
Earlier this month it was estimated that since late spring 2015 over 200,000 migrants have crossed the Western Balkans, the vast majority through Macedonia and Serbia.