At a summit in Brussels, it was also agreed that border controls would be coordinated to slow the influx of migrants crossing from Turkey to Asia. Turkey is now hosting more than two million Syrian refugees, according to the UNHCR.
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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 action plan is a major step in this direction”, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council said in his remarks after the summit.
The aid will be used to bolster Turkey’s borders, improve refugees’ living conditions in Turkey and provide incentives for them to stay there. Greece is the first port of arrival for most people heading to the EU.
European leaders also tentatively agreed to re-evaluate Turkey’s long-standing application to join the E.U.
“We need a response and an adequate response from the Turkish side; they are our partners in the crisis and the “more for more” principle applies”, he told reporters.
A wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants from Turkey to Europe sank near the island of Lesbos after colliding with a Greek coastguard vessel, leaving at least seven people dead, including four children, rescuers said. German chancellor Angela Merkel says Turkey has already spent €7bn on providing accommodation for Syrian refugees.
The deal could ultimately lead to joint EU Turkish coastguard patrols and large refugee camps being established in Turkey with the help of Brussels.
Erdogan accused Europe of waking up too late to the scale of Syria’s refugee crisis, suggesting that it was only when pictures of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi – whose body washed up on a beach near the Turkish resort of Bodrum last month – started circulating, that European Union members started to act.
The deal was negotiated between Ankara and the European Commission, and will see Turkey granted access to the EU’s Schengen zone by 2016, as well as being handed €3bn in European tax payer funding. Agreeing to liberalise visa requirements for 75 million Turkish nationals is a form of European Union madness.
Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country in the world.
Relocating plan that European leaders agreed on the last summer, only contains 120,000 people which is very small compared to the numbers earlier time this morning in Brussels they came up in a action plan for Turkey.
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French President Francois Hollande said: “Just because we want Turkey to help us by keeping back refugees, we mustn’t ease restrictions unconditionally… there will be a proposal (with) many conditions”.
