Greek minister threatens Europe with wave of migrants potentially including IS jihadists
THE defence minister for Greece has threatened to flood Europe with a "wave of millions of economic migrants" – potentially including Islamic State (IS) jihadists – if the country's debt renegotiation plans are rejected.
Cash-strapped Greece is currently facing pressure to get acceptance from eurozone bosses over its plans for the country's financial reform.
The rising tensions between Greece and the eurozone came as Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister, warned that Europe will be hit with migrants that could include "some jihadists of the Islamic State" if Greece is forced out of the euro.
He said: "If they deal a blow to Greece, then they should know the the migrants will get papers to go to Berlin.
"If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too.”
His comments came shortly after Nikos Kotzias, the Greek foreign minister, warned that "there will be tens of millions of immigrants and thousands of jihadists” if bailout negotiations fail.
In retaliation to Mr Kammenos' comments, the spokeswoman for EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos assured she had spoken to Greek authorities and had "received assurances from the Ministry of Interior that no measures to open up detention centres have been taken."
If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants
Eurozone minsters gathered in Brussels on Monday evening where they spent just over 30 minutes discussing Greece at their monthly meeting.
Instead, the eurozone finance chief urged the country to "stop wasting time" and start crunching down on serious talks on implementing a reform programme.
"Little has been done since the last Eurogroup (meeting two weeks ago) in terms of talks, in terms of implementation," said Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
"We have to stop wasting time and really start talks seriously."
Eurozone bosses were sent a letter by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Friday, outlining seven planned measures.
However they said it was just a starting point without detailed figures and no basis for releasing any frozen bailout money yet.
Finance talks will now be held on Wednesday with officials from Greece's international lenders, the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, EU ministers said.
Greece and the eurozone agreed two weeks ago to extend the bailout - but negotiations with the new Syriza government have seen threats to cut Athens off from funds by the end of March.
If Greece fail to secure continued payments on a £172billion bailout of finances, Greece could go bust as soon as the end of this month, according to reports.
An opinion poll on Monday showed a large majority of Greeks want Athens to reach a compromise deal with lenders to avoid having to leave the euro.
