“It is positive that the European Union will work more closely together with Turkey, but we should not make ourselves dependent on a country which is becoming increasingly authoritarian”, he said on Friday.
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According to Engin, this step will have very serious social consequences.
“Turkey after all has already spent €7 billion on refugees and has received less than €1 billion”, Merkel said after the summit. There will be no other criteria for Turkey and we will assess progress in Spring 2016. If Cameron and Co allow this to happen it’s the British people who will be the turkeys at Christmas. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants has put huge pressure on members of the EU’s border-free Schengen area, prompting a desperate search for means of persuading Syrians to stay put. In Turkey now there are 2.2 million Syrians alone. “This is an unacceptable situation”.
On Wednesday, a woman, a young girl and a baby coming from neighboring Turkey died after their boat sank off Lesbos.
Diplomats and officials questioned whether the request for new aid was realistic in the short term: “The 3 billion euros are like a Christmas shopping list that is completely unrealistic”, one source close to the negotiations said.
The plan, which was approved at a European Council meeting on Thursday, includes measures such as the EU assisting the Turkish Coast Guard with patrolling its borders, and providing additional funding to Ankara to deal with the influx of refugees entering the country.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has described Turkey as playing “a key role” in the refugee crisis, is set to visit the country this weekend.
The deal with Turkey must still be discussed and approved by European Union leaders, but the agreement “is so fresh that at tonight’s dinner leaders will not go deeply into it”, a Council official said. “But you can’t say that people have attained nothing”.
A few countries, such as France and Greece, are wary of giving Turkey too much before seeing proof that Ankara will offer real cooperation.
Meanwhile Bulgaria is investigating the death of an Afghan migrant on its border with Turkey Thursday.
“The European Union should be looking at ways in which it can offer safe and legal routes to refugees to reach Europe”, Gardner said. But now that Turkey’s on the front lines of the refugee crisis, Europe needs Erdogan’s help.
French President Francois Hollande insisted that any relaxation in visa rules or Turkey’s accession talks has to meet certain conditions.
In addition to the shooting, a Lebanese family of five drowned while crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Greece, bringing the toll of those drowned at sea to over 3,000 people.
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“Not because I have advocated the need to protect the EU’s borders, but because it is our first obligation to protect the European community, and to guarantee public order”, he said.
