Warsaw – Meetings and presentation on ESI's policy proposal for the Syrian refugee crisis

Gerald Knaus speaking at the ECFR Diplomatic Morning Briefing. Photo: ESI

On 12 November 2015 ESI's Gerald Knaus spoke at Diplomatic Morning Briefing as well as a seminar organised by ECFR's Warsaw office on the Syrian refugee crisis and ESI's proposal for a solution. Both events were attendend by EU ambassadors, Polish policy makers, as well as journalists and academics.

ESI's proposal foresees four concrete steps:

1. Greece declares Turkey a safe country of origin
2. Turkey commits to fully implement the readmission agreement with Greece from date X
3. Germany commits to resettle 500,000 registered Syrian refugees directly from Turkey from date X within a year
4. The EU lifts visa requirement for Turkish citizens in early 2016

On 13 November, Gerald presented ESI's proposal at an OSCE expert panel on "The migration crisis in the OSCE region: Safeguarding rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other persons in need" attended by representatives of ODHIR, IOM, UNHCR, and senior civil servants from OSCE member states.

While in Warsaw, Gerald gave an interview on the refugee crisis to the German TV news show "Quer" and to Euractiv.pl.

Gerald also met with Krzysztof Szczerski, Secretary of State for international relations at the Chancellery of the Polish President and with Klaus Rösler, Director of Operations Division at FRONTEX.

• ESI newsletter: Merkel in Ankara – Fences that kill – A safe third country (18 October 2015)
• ESI background: Turkey as a "Safe Third Country for Greece (17 October 2015)
• ESI compilation: The 2015 Refugee Crisis through statistics (17 October 2015)
• Die Zeit, "Erdogan braucht Deutschland" - Interview with Gerald Knaus - ("Also available in English: Erdogan needs Germany") (15 October 2015)
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, "Die Festung, die keine ist" ("This is not a fortress") (5 October 2015)
• ESI policy proposal: The Merkel Plan – Restoring control; retaining compassion – A proposal for the Syrian refugee crisis (4 October 2015)
• ESI newsletter: Refugees as a means to an end – The EU's most dangerous man (24 September 2015)

Gerald Knaus speaking at the OSCE expert panel. Photo: ESI

Interview with Gerald Knaus on "Quer". Photo: ESI