The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has warned that too much EU “interference” in people’s lives is eroding support for the bloc.
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Brussels made the announcement after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned that Ankara could tear up the March 18 agreement if the European Union did not implement the visa pledge.
“Turkey must fulfil all remaining conditions so that Commission can adopt its proposal in the coming months”, Mr Juncker told a plenary session of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe’s leading human rights organisation. “The criteria will not be watered down in the case of Turkey”, Juncker said. 17 of the 75 requirements required for visa-free travel for Turks by June were yet to be completed, Davutoglu said, adding that he expected those to be fulfilled by May.
The recommendation on Ukraine came from Avrapoulos (pictured above) at the close of a Brussels’ press conference at which he said Europe should work towards a “security union” to better coordinate anti-terrorism practices and refugee arrivals. The member states can adopt the initiative, individually, or the European Commission can apply any decision of this kind at the EU level – but that would need unanimity among all member states.
In return, Turkey is slated to receive benefits including visa-free travel for its citizens to Europe, promised “at the latest” by June 2016.
Turkey is also to receive a total of six billion euros in financial aid up to the end of 2018 for the 2.7 million Syrian refugees it is hosting.
Turkey’s specific complaint is that the European Union is handing out funds project by project but that there are many other regular expenses such as delivering daily food.
He said crossings from Turkey into Greece were down to 60 or even sometimes zero people per day. Nonetheless, evidence shows that Turkey, along with ally Saudi Arabia, routinely arm and purchase oil from the violent extremist Islamic organization, intending to topple the popularly elected regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The former Luxembourg premier said, “Today we are facing very tough times”.
In exchange, Turkey is due to prevent migrants and refugees from departing from its shores for Europe via irregular routes and take back all who reach the 28-nation bloc that way.
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The pact involves resettling one Syrian refugee from a Turkish camp for each Syrian migrant landing in the EU, and it has been criticised for breaking worldwide and European law.
