Europe’s most challenging crisis can’t be fully resolved even with Turkey’s help if the EU doesn’t pay enough attention to its external borders, European Council President Donald Tusk said.
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EU-Turkey ties have frayed since Turkey started talks to enter in 2005, especially after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governments strayed from EU civil rights standards and the bloc’s economic misery dimmed enthusiasm for further expansion beyond the current 28 nations.
Indeed the final declaration satisfied all Ankara’s requests, particularly as regards a €3 billion payment to help the country host 2.2 million Syrian refugees on their way to Europe.
The country’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the summit in Brussels today a “new beginning” for relations with the EU.
Turkey is home to 2.2 million refugees.
Measures the European Union has taken in recent months have done little to control movements and while winter weather may lower the numbers for a few months, it is also worsening the plight of tens of thousands stuck by closing borders in the Balkans.
Hadjigeorgiou stressed that “if Turkey is a member it can work in a more democratic way with the countries that are already European Union members”.
The first EU-Turkey summit in 11 years comes as Ankara faces diplomatic and security challenges from Moscow following the downing of a Russian warplane on Tuesday.
The €3bn will go towards helping Syrian refugees in Turkey. There are already questions, however, on whether the money going to Turkey will be enough.
EU President Donald Tusk is warning that any deal with Turkey at a summit in Brussels will not solve the migrant issue overnight.
“For now, I think it is a good idea to cooperate with Turkey to keep the refugees in there”, Takis Hadjigeorgiou, a member from the Progressive Party of Working People, said, adding that when circumstances allow, this aid should be applied to the “new Syria with a functioning democracy”. Brussels also committed to easing the visa requirements for Turks visiting the EU’s passport-free Schengen area by next October. He said any funds for a 3 billion-euro ($3.2 billion) package to help Turkey deal with the migrants on its territory will be released progressively as the commitments are checked.
Both sides got concessions: The EU desperately needs Turkish help to contain the flow of migrants into the bloc, and Turkey resuscitated long-mothballed hopes to join a bloc in which it would, by population, become one of the biggest member states.
The EU also agreed to open a new chapter in Turkey’s stalled bid for membership of the bloc in exchange for Turkey’s cooperation in reducing the flow of refugees and migrants, Tusk said.
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Two Turkish journalists charged with “spying” over their reports about Ankara’s alleged arms supplies to Syrian rebels urged the European Union on Saturday not to compromise on human rights and press freedom at the summit.
