European leaders agreed on Thursday 15 December to hold a fresh special EU-Turkey summit in the coming months to discuss a range of issues affecting the two sides, from migration to customs cooperation, European Council President Donald Tusk announced after the European summit (see EUROPE 11515).
Over their lunch at which migration issues were discussed, the leaders reaffirmed their pledge to apply in full the EU-Turkey migration agreement of 18 March – an agreement which “no one put in question”, commented European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The 28 leaders also agreed on the timetable for the reform of the European asylum system. While the first draft of the conclusions stated only that the member states would continue their discussions during the Maltese Presidency, in the final version the leaders firmed up their expectations and set a target of achieving consensus within the next six months. Italy welcomed this small step forward, but “I’ll spare you the time we spent discussing the meaning of that phrase”, said Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, attending his first summit.
No breakthrough on “effective solidarity”. The discussion on migration lasted little more than the expected and no progress was made on the notion of “effective solidarity” that has been promoted by the Slovak Presidency.
As General Affairs Council on Tuesday 13 December (see EUROPE 11688) had already shown, a number of countries remain committed to the principle that all member states should take in refugees when a solidarity mechanism based on sharing asylum seekers is triggered. Germany and Sweden also argued for a more precise timetable for the reform of the so-called Dublin system.
In the conclusions adopted, the leaders underlined the need for the relevant member states to intensify their efforts to accelerate relocation, in particular for unaccompanied minors.
According to a source, the debate on migration went as planned. The leaders highlighted the value of the targeted partnerships that have so far been concluded with five African countries (Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Niger and Senegal) and spoke of extending such compacts to other countries. The European Council also welcomed the cooperation with Niger, through which passes the main route for migrants heading for Libya and then on to the EU (see other article). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Mathieu Bion)