There will be no reception centres for migrants in Croatia’s south-east neighbourhood, said Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in Brussels on Sunday, where he participated in a mini summit on migration along with 15 other EU leaders.

“We mostly discussed the potential asylum centres outside EU territory, we did not discuss (asylum centres) in EU. On the contrary, the idea is, modelled on the agreements with Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, to find solutions to prevent large migrant waves in the future,” Plenkovic said after the mini-summit.

The controversial EU-Turkey agreement was signed in March 2016 in an attempt to stem the tide of migrants entering Europe. Under the deal, Ankara would take in the migrants in exchange for €6 billion in aid from the EU. Some humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International, criticised the deal as a sign that Europe was turning its back on refugees. EU has not yet paid the full amount.

Plenkovic added that he thought opening asylum centres in the Western Balkans, or even just in northern Africa, was highly unlikely.

The summit, organised by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, was an opportunity for the leaders of the 16 EU countries to openly exchange stances on three topics, he said.

The first is the European Union’s migration and asylum policy. There is consensus on its external dimension, as well as interest to continue with the implementation of the agreement between EU and Turkey, which would mean paying the rest of the amount in support to Turkey promised under the deal, and to come up with similar agreements with other countries, particularly in northern Africa, for example Libya, to prevent further illegal migration.

The second topic is complete consensus on the protection of EU’s external borders, and the third is the issue of secondary migrations, where the general agreement was reached to continue the talks on seven legislative acts, including revising the Dublin Regulation, with the aim to finalise the talks within the EU by the end of the year, Plenkovic said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the meeting that everyone agreed it was necessary to reduce the number of illegal migrants and protect external borders, adding that everyone in the EU needed to take responsibility for the issue.

“Everyone is responsible for everything. We want a European solution wherever possible, and where it is not possible, we want those who wish to find common ground to reach an agreement,” Merkel said.

She added that the summit was a sign of good will and that they would continue to work on finding a solution over the next days.

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