Brussels, 24/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of Monday 23 November, European Council President Donald Tusk called an EU-Turkey summit for Sunday 29 November.
It was decided at an informal meeting of heads of state and government in Valletta on 12 November that this summit should be held, and the goal of the summit will be to discuss migration flows and to boost relations between the EU and Turkey, Tusk tweeted.
This announcement is a response to a request from Turkey and its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had asked for regular meetings to be organised between the EU and Turkey, as part of the discussions launched in early October on the EU-Turkey action plan on the fight against illegal immigration. Erdogan's arrival in Brussels on Sunday had nevertheless not been confirmed on Tuesday 24 November, although Turkey's prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu will attend.
Tusk's announcement is also a response to a positive recommendation on the state of progress of the European Commission-compiled action plan, Tusk tweeted. The Commission's vice-president Frans Timmermans is steering these discussions and visited Ankara again in the middle of last week. It is on the basis of his debriefing to Tusk and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker that the summit has been confirmed. The EU was also awaiting the formation of the Turkish government, which was made public on 24 November. Mevlut Cavusoglu remains Turkey's foreign minister and Volkan Bozkir the European affairs minister.
According to sources, Timmermans' latest talks were more constructive than the meeting organised on the sidelines of the G20 in Antalya on Sunday 15 November between Erdogan and his counterparts - Tusk and Juncker. This G20 meeting had gone “very very badly”, one source said.
A European source said on Tuesday 24 November that two things are important for Turkey - the holding of this summit and the €3 billion package that the Commission set out on 21 November. However, discussions were slowed down for reasons of “political resolve on both sides”, said another source on Monday 23 November. Sunday's summit will have to serve for the finalisation and launch of this action plan - which some sources believe possible now that this summit has been confirmed.
This financial package, brought together in a facility instrument for the Syrian refugees on Turkish soil, will be based on €500 million from the European budget, the Commission said on Tuesday. The member states have been asked to provide the rest. This budget would cover the years 2016 and 2017.
In exchange, the EU expects Ankara to reinforce its border management, regulate migration flows to Greece and allow Syrian refugees to integrate into Turkey - with the children of refugees having to attend school more, for example. As regards border management, the flows of migrants arriving in Greece have nevertheless clearly decreased in recent days - due particularly to the weather conditions. According to estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of people arriving in Greece decreased from 220,535 in October to 116,579 on 23 November. October had, however, been described as a “record” month.
Would Turkey have a role to play in reducing migration flows? According to Human Rights Watch, the country is reportedly returning Syrians who are trying to reach Turkey.
In exchange for its help on the borders, Turkey wants to progress on the liberalisation of visas (Juncker had spoken, at the beginning of October, of a visa-free system for some categories of Turkish people from July 2016 - such as business people). Turkey also wants to progress on its process of joining the EU.
Moving forward on EU accession negotiations. In its conclusions of 15 October, the European Council asked for the accession process to be boosted with a view to making progress in the negotiations. On 18 October, Erdogan said that five negotiation chapters could be opened - Chapters 15 (energy), 17 (economic and monetary policy), 23 (judicial apparatus and fundamental rights), 24 (freedom, security and justice) and 31 (foreign, security and defence policy).
Chapter 17 could be opened by the end of the year if all the EU member states give their agreement. However, four chapters are being blocked by the Republic of Cyprus in connection with the island's division. The Commission has nevertheless announced its intention to update the screening reports by the end of June 2016, with criteria for opening Chapters 23 and 24 (regulates chapters of law), an updated report for Chapter 15 and an updated proposal for opening Chapter 26 (education). According to a European source, assessment of Chapter 31 could also start. Discussions on these chapters could thus begin at the Council, although this does not mean that the member states decide to open them.
While the fight against IS is not officially on Sunday's summit agenda, the heads of state and government may nevertheless still discuss this. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Solenn Paulic)