Migrant deal struck as Greece, Germany, Spain agree on returns

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the trilateral agreement on Friday for the return of migrants and refugees from Germany to Greece and Spain will not burden the country and will also expedite the reunification of split families. 

The deal's main aim, he said, is to minimize the flow of the so-called secondary movement of migrants and refugees from point-of-entry countries - like Greece and Spain - to Germany. 

He said, moreover, that the deal was not linked to the acceptance - on the sidelines of the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels - of the Greek request for a suspension of the planned VAT hikes on five islands of the eastern Aegean which have borne the brunt of the crisis. 

New Democracy welcomed the VAT hike suspension, saying however that this had always been a conservative proposal. When the government follows ND's cue, it said, positive things...