by Tommy Hansen
COPENHAGEN
Foreign ministers from Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Finland on Monday proposed coordination on efforts to help Syrian refugees both in Europe and in the countries close to conflicts in the Middle East
At a press conference after a meeting of all the ministers in Copenhagen, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "While it is important for European countries to continue providing humanitarian support to refugees and immigrants, it is also important that infrastructure in Syria's neighboring countries, like Jordan and Lebanon, which house the largest number of Syrian refugees, will not collapse. Lebanon, for instance, with a population of 4.6 million people, is now hosting 1.5 million refugees,” he said. “There are very weak support structures, so we have to do two things: One is to strengthen our engagement in humanitarian aid for the refugees, and the other is to strengthen the structures of those countries who are hosting the refugees already,"
Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said European countries should strongly coordinate their efforts in order to be able to handle the refugees currently coming to Europe.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the countries represented by the four foreign ministers were always willing to discuss ways to help Syrian refugees. . She also noted that Sweden and Germany were among the countries which hosted the most Syrian refugees.
Steinmeier later told The Anadolu Agency that Germany, and the three Nordic EU-members Denmark, Finland and Sweden, were very tightly connected on matters of central European and global policy.”We have common views on the values that have made Europe strong, the European basic liberties, democracy, pluralism and security. All four countries care about their relations with their neighbors -- we want freedom and stability and to engage in humanitarian projects," Steinmeier.said.
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