PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the flow of refugees and other migrants into Europe (all times local):
2:25 p.m.
Croatia's government has proposed to Parliament to amend a law that would allow the army to be deployed to the country's borders to tackle the migration crisis.
Croatia's Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said Friday the measure would not mean that the army would be deployed "tomorrow, but would leave the possibility open."
He says Croatia's neighbor Slovenia has already deployed its army to the border, while Serbia is considering the option.
The Balkan countries and Austria have recently introduced tight restrictions to stem the flow of migrants. That has resulted in thousands of refugees and other migrants being stranded in Greece on the border with Macedonia.
According to the proposed amendment, Croatia's army would help the police in patrolling the borders.
Opposition parties denounced the government's plans, saying the deployment of the army would raise tensions among Balkan countries that are still reeling from the wars in the 1990s.
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1:30 p.m.
The European Union has kicked off the distribution of the promised 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in aid for refugees in Turkey, formally pledging 95 million euros for educational and food assistance.
Days ahead of Monday's EU summit with Turkey, the European Commission said it has pledged 55 million euros ($60 million) to give Syrian children fleeing violence proper schooling in refugee camps. The Commission said the funds would help put 110,000 Syrian children in school.
The Commission said that an additional 40 million euros ($44 million) will be provided through the World Food Program to seek to help feed some 735,000 Syrian refugees.
The EU aid plan aims to provide 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in aid over the next two years to refugees who are now sheltered in Turkey.
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1:15 p.m.
The German government says it has offered to help Greece cope with migrants camped at its borders but points out Athens hasn't yet requeassistance.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry says Germany's disaster response agency THW stands ready to assist with water preparation and provide technical and logistical support for camp construction.
Asked by reporters in Berlin on Friday why Germany had so far only provided limited assistance to Greece, spokesman Johannes Dimroth said that "it's not the case that we're not prepared to help."
He added that "on the contrary the available services and resources ... have been offered and need to be requested by the Greek side. That hasn't happened yet."
Government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said EU leaders would discuss the "dramatic situation in Greece" in Brussels on Monday1:10 p.m.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says it's counterproductive for European countries to implement individual measures in response to the migrant crisis.
She says border slowdowns and closures have just meant that migrants are now piling up in Greece, overwhelming the country's resources.
Merkel is pushing for a European solution, and said Friday while meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris that "unilateral solutions do not help us."
She said Europe needs to work closely with Turkey to stop the flow of migrants, and also to secure its outer borders so that it knows who is entering, and that movement within Europe is not restricted.
___The European Union's head office estimates that the cost of fully restoring border controls between EU member states would be as high as 18 billion euros ($20 billion) a year.
As temporary controls between several member states are reimposed to deal with the migrant crisis, the fear of the full collapse of the borderless Schengen zone through most of the EU has increased over the past month.
The European Commission said Friday that the cost could amount to 0.13 percent of Gross Domestic Product. It estimated that cost for road transport alone could go as high as 7.5 billion euros ($8.2 billion) annually, hitting countries with major exports especially hard.
In a planning document on how to fully restore the Schengen zone by December at the latest, the Commission said that beyond trade, the re-imposition of borders "would also risk putting in jeopardy the judicial and police cooperation."AP
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