Brussels, 16/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 16 October, the European Commission made public the action plan that has been negotiated with Turkey for joint management of the migration crisis. Some parts of the plan have nevertheless already been contested by the Turkish government - especially with regard to the financial assistance that the EU could give it.
According to the Commission, this action plan was agreed upon with Ankara. However, Turkey's Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu took issue with some parts of the plan just a few hours after it was presented. In Sinirlioglu's view, it is only a “draft” and the financing that has been planned (€3 billion over several years) is “unacceptable”, as reported by French news agency AFP. Ankara would like this amount to be made available quickly and just for a year.
The action plan was presented to the European Council by the Commission on Thursday 15 October (see EUROPE 11411) and is based on a balance between, on the one hand, financial assistance to Turkey so that it might better take charge of the refugees and migrants on its soil while containing the migration flows towards the EU, and on the other hand, assurances that the visa liberalisation process benefitting Turkish nationals will be accelerated following its launch in 2013.
The roadmap for this visa liberalisation process will nevertheless remain unchanged. Turkey must currently fulfil 70 criteria. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said that the roadmap will be the subject of an assessment in spring 2016. This could lead to authorising some Turkish nationals to come to the EU without visas - although the action plan does not mention any detail on this issue.
The roadmap will certainly be the subject of a second report by the Commission at the end of 2015 or start of 2016. The EU has made visa liberalisation for Turkey conditional upon Ankara's application of the readmission agreement for its nationals who are in the EU illegally - yet this readmission agreement has never really been implemented by the Turkish authorities.
The action plan that has just been presented by the Commission is a little different from the draft that was discussed in Brussels with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 5 October (see EUROPE 11403). The most recent version of the plan thus no longer mentions the EU's co-financing of six refugee reception centres on Turkish soil. A Commission source stated on Friday that this change had been made at Ankara's request, because these “centres are in the process of construction and the Turkish authorities didn't want this to remain in the document”.
The action plan also focuses on the financial assistance to be given to Turkey so that it might improve the living conditions of the refugees on its soil and enable their socio-economic integration. On Thursday, the EU heads of state and government spoke of an amount of €3 billion, of which €0.5 billion could come from the European budget. Sinirlioglu nevertheless said that his government wanted the whole €3 billion released just for the first year of the action plan.
Turkey, for its part, would commit to strengthening its border controls and to cooperating both with Greece and Bulgaria. The utmost will have to be done to prevent the migration flows towards the EU. While possibilities of resettling refugees in the EU have been raised, no figure has yet been provided on the number of people that this could involve. Turkey has also been asked to review its visa demands on foreigners, as the EU considers Turkey's regime too soft. The Commission would therefore like Ankara to strengthen its visa requirements for third countries - which constitute a large source of illegal immigration towards the EU. These renewed visa requirements could also concern Syrian nationals, a European source believed. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with CG)