Brussels, 11/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Visiting the Turkish authorities on Monday 11 January, European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said in Ankara that he deplored Turkey's scant progress in trying to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
Timmermans estimated that the number of people still managing to disembark on the Greek islands every day was between 2,000 and 3,000 - despite the very bad winter weather conditions. This is “much too high”, he said, as reported by several media sources after he met Turkey's European Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir. “We can't be happy with this”, he added.
Bozkir replied to the European frustration by underlining the “intense efforts” being made in Turkey. “We are catching 500 illegal migration candidates daily”, he said, which in his view is double the number recorded last year before the agreement with Brussels.
Timmermans was in Ankara on Sunday and Monday to address the issue of implementing the EU-Turkey action plan that was decided upon in October and approved by the European leaders at the end of November. The 28 member states of the EU committed to giving €3 billion to Ankara to regulate migrant flows to the EU and to improve the integration of refugees on Turkish soil. There is still not any formal agreement from the EU28 on how to finance this €3 billion, and a meeting of ambassadors is due to tackle the issue again on Wednesday 13 January.
The European Commission has proposed that €500 million be used from the EU budget to finance the initial projects. This was also the aim of Timmermans' visit and he was expected to identify these initial projects with the Turkish government. In the Commission's view, some progress has nevertheless been made since November, a source stated - like the fact that Turkey is now asking for visas for Syrian citizens who are in countries neighbouring Syria, the source said. The Turkish authorities are also issuing more work permits to the Syrian refugees already on Turkish soil.
Timmermans is due to report on the results of his visit to Turkey at the college of commissioners' meeting on 13 January. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)