The EU has clinched an agreement with Turkey giving Ankara €3 billion (£2 billion) and a pledge to renew its membership bid in exchange for help holding back refugees trying to make their way to Europe.
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The deal was expected to be signed off by political leaders at a summit in Brussels last night, European Council president Donald Tusk said.
Turkey was declared eligible to join in 1997 and officially began the process in 2005, but the negotiations have been slow and still involve a number of unresolved topics.
Turkey has pressed for more money.
The main objective of the negotiations was to secure greater guarantees from President Tayyip Erdogan with a view to curbing the now constant flow of migrants from Turkey to the Greek coasts, on their way ultimately to northern Europe. “We will also step up our assistance to Syrian refugees in Turkey through a new refugee facility of thee billion euros”.
He also added that “we have not forgotten the differences that still remain with Turkey over human rights and freedom of the press, and we will return to them”.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has estimated that over 850,000 migrants, many from war-torn Syria, arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea in 2015.
The draft talks of “completing the visa liberalization process i.e. the lifting of visa requirements for Turkish citizens in the Schengen zone by October 2016 once the requirements of the Roadmap are met”.
Hollande also said verification measures need to be in place to check those coming through Turkey, because some “terrorists” have infiltrated the refugee flow.
The final offer of “an initial” €3 billion represents a compromise between the European Union, which offered that sum over two years, and Turkey, which wanted it every year.
Davutoglu said in the press conference that his country has spent 8 billion dollars to deal with the refugees, stressing that Europe’s 3-billion euro humanitarian aid “is given to Syrian refugees, not given to Turkey”.
It added: “Both sides will, as agreed and with immediate effect, step up their active cooperation on migrants who are not in need of worldwide protection, preventing travel to Turkey and the European Union, ensuring the application of the established bilateral readmission provisions and swiftly returning migrants who are not in need of global protection to their countries of origin”.
I will repeat this again: “without control on our external borders, Schengen will become history”, the official said as he arrived for the EU-Turkey Summit on the refugee crisis in Brussels, AMNA reported.
Mr Davutoglu said it was a “historic day” and vowed that his country would keep its promises, in the face of scepticism from some countries in the 28-member EU. But this is not about the European Union outsourcing its security and migration policy to Turkey.
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“It’s important in so many aspects because it’s the first EU-Turkey summit in 11 years”, Mr. Davutoglu told reporters at Ankara airport as he left for Brussels. We have to put all the issues we have on the table’.
