Brussels, 16/10/2105 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Thursday 15 October for the fourth summit since the spring dedicated to the migration crisis, the EU heads of state and government concentrated on the protection of the EU's external borders and cooperation with Turkey.
The Europen Council thus decided to strengthen the missions of the Frontex agency - which will be able to carry out missions on its own initiative for returning illegal migrants in the EU to third countries. The summit also approved preparations for the action plan involving the European Commission and Turkey to regulate migrant flows, and it agreed that the process of visa liberalisation for Turkish nationals should be accelerated if certain criteria are respected - particulary implementation of the readmission agreement signed in 2013. An analysis of the visa liberalisation process should be made in spring 2016, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the end of the summit.
The European leaders did not, however, decide on the specific arrangments for this action plan - especially as regards its financing. Although Turkey has asked the EU for a €3 billion contribution, this amount has not yet been agreed by the member states. The response to Turkey's request will be finalised at a later date. Germany, for example, showed its readiness to release this financial assistance. “Turkey has spent €7 billion these last three or four years. It has received less than €1 billion. The burden needs to be shared. We spoke about contributions from the member states”, said Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The action plan, which was in particular put together by European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans (who was visiting Ankara on Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 October), aims at ensuring that refugees will really stay in Turkey and that attempts to cross the Mediterranean will be prevented. Turkey, for its part, asked for new chapters in its EU accession process to be opened, and the member states agreed in principle to deal with this request.
The issue of including Turkey on the European list of safe countries was not discussed at this summit, Merkel said. “The issue of Turkey as a safe country of origin was not spoken about today. It's not the most important. There needs to be individual assessment of particular cases, like the Kurds for example”, she said. Her government is nevertheless reported to be in the middle of taking a position in favour of including Turkey on this list. Merkel will visit Turkey on Sunday.
For the rest, the EU heads of state and government gave their backing to an integrated management of the EU's external borders and to consideration of creating a European border guard system, in respect of national competences.
Germany also apparently wanted a reference in the summit conclusions to the permanent distribution mechanism for asylum seekers - a mechanism which arouses controversy. However, the final conclusions of the European Council simply recalled all the decisions on relocation that have been taken over recent months, and did not mention such a mechanism. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with CG, JK, AN, PH, LC, EL)