EU–Turkey Dialogue on Migrant Crisis

EU has taken 10 more days to finalise a new deal with Ankara on ways to check migrant inflow to Europe.

Mihai Pelin, 08.03.2016, 13:35

In Mondays summit in Brussels, EU leaders postponed for next week the adoption of a concrete plan to solve the migrant crisis. They decided to further look into Turkeys proposal and agreed, in principle, to provide additional funds to Ankara to help the refugees in that country.

Attending the summit, the Prime Minister of Romania Dacian Ciolos explained that no decision could be made in the current format but that a declaration had been issued, entrusting the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, with holding talks with the member states in the forthcoming days, until the next summit due on March 18-19.

The Romanian official said Turkeys proposal on how to manage the migrants were “generally well received by the EU leaders, and its implementation would deter illegal migration to the EU within weeks. In his opinion, the goal of the agreement with Ankara would be to curb the illegal crossing from Turkey to Greece and therefore to protect the EU external borders.

Dacian Ciolos: “This proposal coming from Turkey means that Turkey undertakes to take over all the illegal migrants crossing the border into Greece, and therefore reaching the EU, and to return those who do not come from Syria to their home countries and only accept as asylum-seekers the Syrians on Turkish territory and under Turkeys responsibility. But Ankara wants the EU to take in one refugee for each migrant that does not qualify for asylum in Europe and is returned to Turkey.

Turkey also expects the EU to step up talks on its stalled accession process and wants a quicker liberalisation of the visa regime. The latter had already been planned for this autumn, but Turkey wants visas lifted much sooner, namely in June.

Meanwhile, Romania has received a small portion of its migrant quota, and the US Ambassador Hans Klemm has urged Romanians to show tolerance and treat the Middle East refugees with dignity and compassion. He said that the people who flee war must not be seen as a prospective burden for society, but rather as a source of development. The first 15 refugees reached Romania last week, and according to the quota system outlined in Brussels, over 6,000 others are to be sent to this country in the next two years. At present, Romania only has accommodation facilities for 1,500 refugees.