The EU has to mobilise all its resources to deal with the refugee influx without undermining the security of member states.

This was stated by European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Tuesday.

Georgieva added that the EU should focus on guarding the external borders in order to retain the free movement of people within the Union.

She expressed hope that the new year will develop better than it had started.

According to her, easing tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims was fundamental for bringing to a successful end the negotiations on Syria.

As positive developments in 2015, Georgieva identified the Paris agreement on the reduction of climate change and the agreement on the nuclear programme of Iran.

She reminded that despite the forecasts, the European economy returned to growth, with the expectations being that this trend will be sustained in the new year.

In her words, the EU had two very clear and firm priorities in the new year.

The first priority was to aid countries to deal with the refugee crisis and to help states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, which to some extent were holding back the migrant wave to Europe.

The second priority was to continue investments in the European economy, with the first positive results in this respect already achieved through the Juncker plan.

Georgieva explained that only within the space of six months, nearly BGN 50 B were invested in the European economy.

She noted that the amount of funds allocated under the EU budget for dealing with the refugee wave has been increased more than twice for 2015/2016 – from BGN 4.5 B to BGN 10 B.

Georgieva made it clear that there was need to distinguish between refugees fleeing war and economic migrants.

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