Brussels, 05/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Monday 5 October, the European Union and Turkey were to take the opportunity of the visit by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss preparations for an action plan to manage the migratory flows to the EU and increase Turkey's capacity to host refugees.
This action plan, which was reported over the weekend by several European media sources, was not denied by the Commission on Monday and was to be discussed in greater depth on Monday evening at a dinner between Erdogan and the Presidents of the Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk and Martin Schulz. The four men were also to discuss the dossier on the liberalisation of the visa regime for Turkish citizens, which Erdogan wants to keep as a European priority, as well as the fight against terrorism or the creation of a safe zone for the populations in Syria (see other article). Erdogan, he explained at a preliminary press conference with Tusk, also planned to discuss the question of Turkey's accession to the EU. Tusk told him that he expected Turkey to tighten up the management of its external borders and to abide by the existing readmission agreements.
Under this action plan, the EU will ask Turkey to reinforce the management of its borders and to regulate the flow of migrants reaching the EU, particularly by means of joint patrols with the Europeans, such as the Greeks and Frontex; additional funds will be granted to Turkey to build more migrant and refugee hosting centres. In return, the EU will undertake to host more refugees on its soil under the resettlement programmes. However, the Commission on Monday declined to confirm the figure of 500,000 resettlement places offered to Turkey, or the number, six, of new refugee centres to be built on Turkish soil.
The Commission was not directly expecting a formal green light from Erdogan to the list of initiatives, but at least his approval “for the process to launch”, European source explained. The Commission also wants this action plan to be approved in mid-October at a European summit and for the actions defined with Turkey to be able to start as soon as possible.
In a press statement ahead of his meeting with Erdogan, Jean-Claude Juncker said that he would present Turkey with a “common migration agenda” on Monday evening and that he was very much in favour of “accelerating the visa question”, a process which was launched in late 2013 and which will be the subject of an interim report at the end of this year. President Juncker also said that he wanted Turkey to be included on the list of safe countries of origin (which would allow asylum applications of its nationals to be dealt with more quickly). The home affairs ministers are to discuss this matter in Luxembourg on Thursday and some of them are reluctant to include Turkey on the list, due to recent security developments. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)