“In Europe we are all always partners”, she said.
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A British official says there’s no “sense that gaps in key issues had narrowed… there’s a lot of hard work to do overnight”.
It is a move that has been branded as “plainly incompatible” with global law. But a new poll released by Bertelsmann Stiftung, indicates that a vast majority of Europeans agree with Merkel’s proposed plans.
“Merkel and Hollande pledged to maintain the status quo on the European borders until an extraordinary EU summit on March 6, when Turkey’s refugee management will be assessed”, the source told reporters.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker meanwhile said the EU leaders agreed “there was no alternative to smart, intelligent cooperation with Turkey”.
Austria had been due to host a pre-summit meeting between Turkey and 11 EU states on Thursday, but that was called off due to a bombing in Ankara – a setback to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hopes of pressing ahead with the EU-Turkey pact.
BRUSSELS (AP) The leaders of Germany and France are meeting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras amid growing worry about Greece’s lack of control over thousands of migrants crossing its borders into the European Union every week. The EU, in particular the EU’s border management agency FRONTEX, should closely cooperate with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, leaders stated.
He said that “if we can get a good deal I’ll take that deal, but I will not take a deal doesn’t meet what we need”.
The main opposition to the plan has come from the Visegrad Four – an eastern European bloc of states that includes Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. This would also see visa freedom for Turkish citizens and speeding up the European Union candidate country’s accession talks in exchange for Turkey stemming the flow of refugees into Europe. Most of the migrants cross from Greece to Macedonia and continue through Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia into Austria and Germany.
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“The full and speedy implementation of the EU-Turkey Action Plan remains a priority, in order to stem migration flows and to tackle traffickers and smugglers networks”, Xinhua quoted the leaders as saying. “By March time will be running out… relying simply on Turkey to deliver is not enough”.
