Brussels, 29/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and Turkey agreed at an extraordinary bilateral summit on Sunday 29 November on a joint action plan that will seek to curb the flow of refugees. According to European Council President Donald Tusk, 1.5 million refugees have arrived in the EU in 2015, mainly via Turkey (see EUROPE 11411).
In a joint statement, the two sides declared that Turkey would receive an “initial” sum of €3 billion, to be reviewed regularly and to be conditional on a range of Syrian refugee programmes in Turkey. That country currently hosts 2.2 million Syrians. This assistance “is not for Turkey but for the Syrian refugees”, confirmed Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after the summit.
French head of state François Hollande, who left Brussels before the end of the summit, said that the €3 billion would be paid out by instalments. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel suggested that “Turkey must commit to controlling its borders with Europe and also with Syria. This should be a precondition for any payment of financial assistance”.
In exchange for the aid, Turkey pledges, “with immediate effect” according to the statement, to prevent migrants not in need of international protection from travelling from Turkey to the shores of Europe. Turkey will also apply bilateral readmission agreements so that irregular migrants are returned to their countries of origin. Measures will also be taken by Turkey to improve the socio-economic situation of the Syrians under temporary protection.
The Turkish prime minister underlined the shared responsibility of the EU and Turkey in finding a resolution of this crisis. He gave warning, however, that, should the war in Syria last, Turkey would not be able on its own to ensure that the migratory flows to the EU will be reduced.
Visa-free regime for Turkish nationals by October 2016. A further promise made to Turkey is that the EU-Turkey illegal migrant readmission agreement will become fully applicable from June 2016. The EU would, then, be in a position, by October 2016, to be able to propose a visa liberalisation decision for all Turkish nationals. In practice, this means that, from October of next year, Turkish nationals will be able to remain in the Schengen area for up to three months without requiring a visa. The Commission will present an interim report in March 2016 on the 70 criteria that have to be met for Turkey to enter this visa-free regime. In return, Turkey will remove all visa requirements targeting certain member states.
Member states' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) will receive regular reports and assess Turkish efforts monthly, a source said.
Lastly, Turkey also won a commitment from the EU to hold more regular meeting with it, including bilateral summits twice a year. More sectorally-based meeting will also be held, for example, to discuss counter-terrorism, the economy and energy.
Mini-summit on the resettlement of refugees from Turkey. A meeting convened on the initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel was held ahead of the summit. This mini-summit, attended also by Austria, Sweden, Luxembourg, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Greece, was devoted to voluntary efforts by European countries to resettle Syrians directly from Turkey.
As a result of these discussions, the European Commission undertook to bring forward a resettlement proposal for Turkey before 15 December, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced after this meeting. The system will, however, remain entirely voluntary. “Some member states have agreed to take more refugees. The question now is to work out how put an action plan in motion as quickly as possible”, said Merkel. “For the moment, however, there is no point in speculating on which countries will take part”, she added.
The Commission has not set out the scale of the future resettlement programme that will be proposed but it will exceed the 20,000 places of a previous programme, brought forward in May. German media have suggested a figure of 400,000 places, though this has not been confirmed by Merkel. The Commission is likely to stipulate that any such resettlement will only be possible if Turkey effectively halts the flow of irregular migrants to the EU, said a source after the meeting. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Lionel Changeur and Pascal Hansens)