EU, Turkey Strike Deal to Stem Flow of Refugees -- 2nd Update
November 29 2015 - 10:16AM
Dow Jones News
By Laurence Norman in Brussels and Emre Peker in Istanbul
The European Union and Turkey have negotiated an agreement on
how to stem the flow of refugees into the bloc, European Council
President Donald Tusk said on Sunday, as he urged EU leaders to
back the deal at today's Brussels summit.
"After many weeks of hard work...we have reached an agreement
which I hope will be accepted by all parties concerned," Mr. Tusk
said, speaking before the meeting started in Brussels.
Sunday's meeting will "re-energize" often strained ties between
the EU and Turkey, which Mr. Tusk called a "key partner" of the
bloc.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the result of Turkey's EU
membership negotiations remained "open," in comments ahead of the
meeting.
At the heart of the proposed migration deal are Turkey's
promises of tightening its border controls in exchange for some
EUR3 billion ($3.19 billion) in cash and other benefits from the
EU. Those include speeding up work on Turkey's EU membership bid
and a new push to help Ankara win visa-free access to the bloc for
its citizens.
"We need EUR3 billion," European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker said on his way into the summit. Of that sum,
the European Commission would come up with EUR500 million, and
national EU governments should agree on how to come up with the
rest at a later date, Mr. Juncker said.
However, underlining the continued lack of trust between Ankara
and the EU, much of the focus ahead of Sunday's summit has been on
how to guarantee the other side will keep to their pledges.
Diplomats have noted the absence of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan from Sunday's meeting.
EU officials also spent the weekend trying to persuade Cyprus to
sign up for the deal. Cyprus has long blocked progress on Turkey's
EU membership bid over Turkey's refusal to recognize the government
in Nicosia.
The EU has been pressing Turkey to tighten controls on its
boarders with Greece for some time. Formal talks started in
September.
Migrants and refugees have crossed the sea from Turkey into
Greece in their thousands in recent months, making Greece's eastern
islands one of the main entry points for the biggest influx of
migrants since the aftermath of World War II. Already this year
more than 700,000 migrants, mainly Syrian, have arrived in the EU
via Turkey, according to the International Organization of
Migration.
Under the deal which has been negotiated, Turkey would toughen
up its patrols in the Aegean Sea and on the land borders with
Greece and Bulgaria, as well as cracking down on human-trafficking
gangs. Ankara would agree to take back to Turkey migrants whose
asylum claims are denied by EU countries.
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.
While a joint response to the refugee crisis is top of the
agenda, the Turkish delegation led by Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu is expected to press European counterparts on broader
geopolitical issues led by the Syrian conflict, the fight against
Islamic State, and Russia's increasingly assertive military
operations in support of the Damascus regime just south of Turkey's
border.
Before flying to Brussels for the summit, Mr. Davutoglu said
Russia and Iran were propping up embattled Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad under the guise of fighting Islamic State, warning that
indiscriminate bombing campaigns were hitting civilians and
threatening to unleash another wave of refugees.
"This matter is of direct interest to Turkey in the context of
the refugee crisis, which is the main topic at the Turkey-EU
summit," Mr. Davutoglu said.
Turkey would bring up Russia's repeated violations of the
Turkish airspace with EU leaders. "This carries great importance
with regards to creating a common stance in the Turkey- EU-Russia
triangle," he said.
On Thursday, Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir said
Ankara and the EU would start talks on a policy area covering
economic and monetary policies as soon as Dec. 14-15. Turkey and
the EU have started negotiations on 14 of the 35 policy criteria
that Ankara must fulfill to join the bloc,
While the refugee crisis has strengthened Ankara's hand in
negotiations, domestic developments in Turkey are complicating its
efforts.
Two prominent Turkish journalists were jailed Thursday, pending
trial, in connection with a report alleging Turkey has shipped
weapons to Syrian rebels, which the government had repeatedly
denied. Their arrests follow the government's seizure of opposition
media outlets before elections in November. The U.S. and EU have
both sharply criticized the moves.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com and Emre
Peker at emre.peker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2015 10:01 ET (15:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.