The European Union needs to take concrete measures regarding the issue of asylum seekers. The EU has earmarked one million Euros for Macedonia and Serbia each, but these funds are not enough, the countries’ foreign ministers – Nikola Poposki and Ivica Dacic - told a news conference Thursday at the Western Balkans Summit in Vienna.

“Unless Europe addresses this issue, no one has illusions that the problem will be solved. It’s encouraging that the European Commission is aware about the issue,” stated FM Poposki.

Macedonia, he said, is faced with a particular problem because the country is being transited by migrants entering from an EU member. “Until recently, 4,000 refugees entered Macedonia on daily basis and it is estimated that approximately 3,000 migrants will cross the country’s border daily in the coming period.”

Saying that the refugee crisis was ‘the biggest one in Europe since the World War 2, Serbian FM Dacic also referred to it as a migration of peoples with Serbia being on their transit route. “This year alone, 94,000 requests for claiming asylum have been filed, but most of the migrants, who enter Serbia from the border with Bulgaria and Macedonia after previously arriving from Greece, will only use Serbia as a transit country.”

“For years you’ve been saying that asylum seekers from Serbia and Macedonia arrive in the EU. Now we can say that migrants from the European Union enter our countries. We ask you when are you going to introduce clear controls and how are you going to curb the influx. It won’t be stopped with million Euros that are intended to be allocated,” stressed Dacic.

The event is hosted by Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who called on the EU to focus on the Western Balkan route saying that European approach was necessary to settle the issue with asylum seekers. A solution to the challenge the continent is facing is only possible with a joint European approach, according to him.

“If Europe fails to find a swift response, the countries will try to solve the crisis with their own initiatives. It will threaten the European open-border idea,” warned Kurz.

Criticizing Greece, he said it was shameful for an EU member to simply let the refugees cross borders.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Negotiations and Regional Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahn, said the current migrant crisis could be solved if ‘all countries started to think and act in a European manner.’

“All 28 EU members should cooperate and those that are not affected by the crisis must not hide. In a few weeks’ time it is possible other regions in Europe to be hit by the crisis,” stated Hahn urging all member states to show solidarity.

“I’m confident that the crisis will be resolved and that conditions will be created to help the transit countries,” the Enlargement Commissioner added noting that the EU would put EUR 1.5 million at disposal for Serbia and Macedonia each to help them cope with the migrant crisis.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pledged the ‘challenging’ problem to be immediately solved calling all members ‘to do their homework’ and demanding ‘fair distribution of refugees.’

“Without fair distribution of refugees we risk losing the willingness of the countries that are exposed the most to the burden of the surge of migrants,” FM Steinmeier said underlining that it is necessary for a cooperation to be established with the countries en route to the EU.