The official, who asked not to be named, said Tusk believed the new proposals, which include a controversial plan for Turkey to take back all new migrants arriving in Greece, took full account of their wishes.
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“It’s a historic day today because we reached a very important agreement between Turkey and the European Union”, the Turkish prime minister enthused at the press conference.
Davutoglu told reporters in Brussels just prior to Friday’s talks that he hoped to achieve “our goal to help all the refugees, as well as to deepen Turkish-EU relations – which is… good news for our continent and for humanity altogether”.
“We today realised that Turkey and the European Union have the same destiny, the same challenges and the same future”. In exchange, Turkey will stem the flow of refugees from its shores to Greece, the first landing point for many migrants seeking to relocate to Europe.
“European leaders must instead focus on increasing their commitments to relocation and safe and legal routes to the EU”.
For each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, another Syrian migrant will be resettled in the EU.
Friday’s agreement was met with strenuous objections by humanitarian organizations.
Many EU states have expressed concerns about Ankara’s human rights record, including its treatment of the Kurds and a crackdown on critics of the government.
Turkey has also been guaranteed that European Union accession talks on budgetary issues could start before the summer.
During a visit to Idomeni Friday, Kouroumplis said the situation was a result of the “logic of closed borders” by countries that refused to accept refugees.
“We have put into action what we have been trying to achieve for the last three months”, he said after yesterday’s agreement.
Outside the summit, rights group Amnesty International had planted a large screen in the middle of Brussels’ European quarter proclaiming “Don’t trade refugees.
“It will also potentially leave Greece to become a place where hundreds of thousands of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers will reside in camps while they await relocation or a decision on their asylum claim”. For every Syrian returned, the EU would accept one Syrian refugee, for a total of 72,000 people to be distributed among European states.
Images of Afghans, Iraqis or Syrians being removed against their will could lead to an worldwide outcry.
Juncker said that the operation would cost up to 300 million euros over the next six months, 30 million of which would go to the Greek army for the upkeep of facilities housing refugees.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka confirmed that the expulsion of migrants arriving on the Greek islands would begin on Sunday. It would help Greece set up a task force of some 4000 staff, including judges, interpreters, border guards and others to manage each case individually. An EU official said they would open chapter 33 on budget policy and accelerate preparations for negotiations in other areas.
The EU conditions fell short of Turkey’s demands for more money, faster visa-free travel for Turks in Europe and an acceleration of Ankara’s long-stalled EU membership talks.
Still, the ultimate effectiveness of the pact was unclear because there are alternative routes to Europe, notably crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. It added that the deal was “madness” and it would only see deported migrants attempting fresh journeys to Europe.
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On steps that are needed to convince the Greek Cypriot administration to agree to unfreeze negotiations, Tusk said that, even though he would have preferred a better agreement with Turkey on the Cyprus issue, “a piece of something is much better than all of nothing”.
