Brussels, 08/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Under pressure from the migration crisis and still divided on the response to be provided, the European leaders warned the so-called economic migrants, at another summit with Turkey in Brussels on Monday 7 March, and even people able to obtain international protection that they could now no longer be hosted in the EU if they have not respected the legal ways of entering.
The 28 EU member states agreed with Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that every illegal migrant currently in the EU who could not claim asylum would be automatically sent back to Turkey on the basis of the readmission agreement on illegal migrants between Greece and Turkey. And once the final agreement has been sealed between the two parties (theoretically at another European summit on 18 March), Syrian asylum seekers arriving in Greece will also be able to be sent back to Turkey in order to apply for protection.
This arrangement concerning asylum seekers of Syrian nationality more specifically could be governed by the EU-Turkey readmission agreement, the fulfilment of which will be accelerated. Initially planned for June, this agreement could be effective from the day after the summit on 19 March, sources were suggesting at the start of the day.
What will Europeans give Turkey in exchange? “Resettling a Syrian in the EU on a one for one basis”, said European Council President Donald Tusk at the end of the summit. In other words, for each migrant who arrives in Greece and is taken back by Turkey, the Europeans would in turn commit to resettling a refugee (whose status has previously been recognised as such) on their soil from Turkey. The practical details of this deal still have to be discussed by the next summit but European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has already guaranteed the legality of such a scheme. “Turkey will readmit the Syrians in accordance with the rationale that they can apply for asylum there”. Turkey is considered as a safe country of origin by Greece and the European directive on asylum conditions (Articles 33 and 38) allows an EU country to refuse an asylum application if it can be handled in a third (non-EU) country that is considered safe, Juncker stated, thus eliminating the risk that this arrangement might be challenged legally.
As regards visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens, the 28 EU member states also agreed that Ankara could take advantage of this scheme by the end of June, as opposed to by October as initially planned.
Having initiated this proposal, especially during the evening of Sunday 6 March at a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the current head of the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers Mark Rutte, Turkey also asked for additional financing in exchange for this greater involvement in the almost automatic readmission of economic and Syrian migrants. It thus asked for an additional €3 billion in aid by 2018, which would be added to the initial €3 billion envelope agreed at a previous EU-Turkey summit in November 2015 (see EUROPE 11441). The size of such an additional envelope has still not been agreed by the European leaders and will be discussed at the next summit, although its principle has been noted. Davutoglu nevertheless rejected the idea that this money would benefit his country directly. “Turkey is not asking anyone for money. It is not asking for money for itself”, he said, stating that this money would go exclusively to the 2.7 million refugees currently on Turkish soil.
The 28 EU member states must also reflect on how these modalities will work, especially the resettlement. Still not calculated in terms of figures, and still on a voluntary basis, this resettlement programme will be able to used by some member states instead of the arrangement on relocating refugees, covering 160,000 people, sources state.
In Juncker's view, Turkey and the EU discussed a “good” draft agreement, which is really likely “to change the situation”. If concluded next week, this agreement will enable the economic model of the smugglers to be broken, Juncker assured.
“The goal is to fight and break the smugglers' model in order to reduce their activities”, Merkel stated. “In this way, illegal migration will be commuted into legal migration. Those who have arrived on the Greek islands by illegal means will find themselves at the bottom of the list. In other words, we are not encouraging illegal migration, but the legal route”, she said, convinced that this Turkish proposal is “a breakthrough, if it is implemented”.
France's President François Hollande hailed the “important progress made”. In his view, the goal is to stop the illegal transport of refugees or migrants from Turkey to Greece, and to confirm that refugees or migrants who arrive in Greece illegally from Turkey through smuggler networks will be sent back to Turkey at the EU's expense.
“Why send the message that Syrians who come by illegal ways would not be those who would benefit first from resettlement? Exactly so that these refugees remain in Turkey, can be identified and can engage in a legal procedure to go to Europe as part of a fixed sharing programme between Europeans”, he said.
In the view of Poland's Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, this draft agreement is satisfactory. “There will be no further obligation compared with what was already decided as regards the relocations. For me, that's the most important point”, she said, adding: “We must resolve the refugee problem outside the EU's borders”.
EU membership. The European leaders also decided to prepare the decision “as quickly as possible” on opening new accession negotiation chapters. Davutoglu said it was an issue of five chapters - in other words, chapter 15 on energy, 23 on fundamental rights and the judicial apparatus, 24 on security, freedom and justice, 26 on education, and 31 on foreign policy. These chapters are currently being blocked by the Republic of Cyprus. “Turkey wants to open new chapters for accession. But Cyprus does not have a flexible position”, Merkel stated. “Points must be discussed with Cyprus in order to determine what is needed to be able to open a chapter. Hard work will be needed in the coming days”, she added. Hollande thought that the accession negotiations with Turkey risked being “still long before reaching a successful outcome”, and Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel also thought that Turkey was still “very far from fulfulling the conditions” for joining the EU.
The EU also decided to work with Ankara on every joint effort possible in order to improve the humanitarian conditions inside Syria which would enable the local population and refugees to live in areas where there will be more safety. Turkey has been asking for “safe” zones in Syria for months. At the final press conference, Davutoglu said that on the sidelines of the summit he had met Hollande, Merkel, the Italian and British prime ministers, and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini regarding the situation in Syria, how to support the ceasefire and what could be done in view of the next inter-Syrian negotiations in Geneva.
Elsewhere, while in their statement the European leaders just said that they had discussed the situation of the media in Turkey (see other article) without issuing any criticism, many of them said on leaving the summit, however, that the freedom of the media was important. “Everyone knows how important the freedom of speech and expression is. It is one of the fundamental rights”, Tusk said. In Davutoglu's view, putting Turkish newspaper Zaman under state control is a legal, not political, issue. “The freedom of speech is a value of Turkish democracy (and) I'm against any restriction of speech and for the freedom of the media”, he said, stating that Turkey had many media that were critical of the government. Nevertheless, Turkey is at the same time the country that has the most journalists in prison in the world. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Camille-Cérise Gessant with Lionel Changeur, Elodie Lamer and Pascal Hansens)