Speaking at the European Parliament (EP) on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said the refugee crisis required European response with the inclusion of Macedonia, MIA’s correspondent reports from Brussels.

“This debate is dedicated to refugees and the transit countries, which are engulfed by an ever-increasing negative energy within the EU in terms of the enlargement process. Unfortunately, a mistake has been made in the perception of the causes of the migrant crisis and the enlargement process. For us it is crucial a European solution to be sought to prevent from problems being transferred from one border to the other,” FM Poposki said at a debate of the EU Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) where views on migration through the Western Balkans were exchanged with Serbian and Turkish government officials.

This problem, he added, needs to be addressed at the source, i.e. in Syria by ending the conflict there. “Without a long-term solution, no one can expect major changes to occur in these ongoing trends,” Poposki stated noting that utmost efforts should be made on the EU border.

“Macedonia is most likely the only country in the route in which migrants arrive from an EU member. We wouldn’t like to lay the blame on anyone, but Macedonia is unable to fix what the EU cannot do in one of its members,” Poposki concluded.

At the sidelines of the AFET debate, the Macedonian Minister held several bilateral talks with MEPs to discuss this year’s progress report for the country, which was released earlier in the day.