People take part in a demonstration against violence against women in front of the cathedral in Cologne | Roberto Pfeil/AFP/Getty Commission: ‘No link between Cologne attacks and refugee crisis’ Minutes of meeting call on Commission to be ‘voice of reason’ on migration.

The European Commission believes the mass sex attacks in Cologne on New Year's Eve were not related to the refugee crisis, according to reports.

Minutes from a meeting of the college of European commissioners on January 13 reveal that the Commission wants to fight "false associations" between a rise in criminal activity and the mass arrival of migrants to Europe, the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

“As far as the crimes in Cologne were concerned, he [First Vice President Frans Timmermans] said that these were a matter of public order and were not related to the refugee crisis,” the minutes state.

They go on to describe fears of a “xenophobic” backlash that would need the Commission to be the "voice of reason."

Timmermans went on to explain "that only about 40 percent of them, mostly Syrians, were fleeing war and therefore in need of international protection; meanwhile, more and more third-country nationals were slipping in who were driven by mainly economic reasons and did not qualify for such protection.”

In the following discussion, members of Jean-Claude Juncker's team stressed that the Commission must continue "to play its coordinating role and sounding the voice of reason to defuse tensions and counter populist rhetoric.”

They called for “the unconditional rejection of false associations between certain criminal acts, such as the attacks on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve, and the mass influx of refugees.”

The minutes also say the Commission must “respond to the concerns of European citizens, particularly by stressing that Europe was also a union of security and values."

Junker concluded the debate, rejecting “unworthy accusations" by member countries who disputed the Commission's role as "the guarantor of European integration and, in particular, the Schengen area.”

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