WARSAW, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki defended his government's hard-line stance over the refugee issue on Monday during a meeting with Wolfgang Schauble, president of Germany's parliament (Bundestag).
According to Morawiecki, strengthening the external EU borders is needed in order to resolve the migration problem. Sovereign countries should not be forced to accept a certain refugee quota without taking into consideration their specific situation, he said.
Morawiecki said refugees should be given aid in their countries of origin and that Europe needed something similar to the Marshall Plan -- a post-war economic recovery aid program launched by the United States to help Europe -- for Africa.
Schauble said that if Europe was to be preserved, it must continue to be a continent of open borders. He emphasized that the migration problem was one of the greatest challenges to stability on a global scale. According to him, opening borders was the real start of European integration.
The Bundestag president said that Europe wanted to save the lives of people in danger and avoid them drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, but conceded that it was also important to fight organized crime and human smuggling.
The debate, during which the migration issue was raised, marked the end of the academic year at the College of Europe in Warsaw.
