Brussels, 27/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is seeking to make it an obligation for Turkey to control its borders better, underlining it has a duty as a country applying for accession. “When I met the Turkish minister, I stressed the imperative conditions to be met by his country if the justice and home affairs chapter is to be opened during membership talks”, Immigration Commissioner Jacques Barrot said on 22 July. “Our neighbours have a three-fold duty: that of ensuring they are not accomplice to traffickers and smugglers by stopping departures, that of accepting re-entry and that of having centres where real asylum requests may be received”, he said. During the informal meeting of EU home ministers in Stockholm, the commissioner had announced talks would resume with Turkey after the summer break (EUROPE 9945).
Support from France. The European Union must put pressure on Turkey so that it controls its border more effectively, said Pierre Lellouche, French Secretary of State for European Affairs, speaking in Athens on 23 July. After the meeting with his Greek counterpart, Yannis Valinakis, he went on to say that Turkey's attitude “runs counter to European principles and values and is not in line with Turkey's capacity as a state applying for EU membership. We support Turkey's European perspective on condition that all criteria and modalities required are fulfilled”. “We must work together within the EU with Greece, first of all to put good questions to the Turkish government so that it controls its borders and, secondly, to develop a system to help protect Greece's coastline”, Lellouche added. “The European Union is based on solidarity and common interest. It cannot leave Greece to face up to such an important problem on its own”, he said, pointing out that, in 2008, the Greek authorities had detained over 150,000 illegal immigrants from Turkey, through which a large number of the illegal migrants transit before reaching Greece by maritime or overland routes. Mr Valinakis, for his part, stressed that Turkey was not in line with the re-entry agreements signed between Athens and Ankara and that it was necessary to reach an agreement between the EU and Turkey in order to resolve the problem. “The EU must take urgent, practical measures on this problem as the Greek borders are European borders”, he said.
Turkish dilemma? “Turkey refuses to become the largest refugee camp in the world”, states Le Monde in its online edition, reporting comments by Turkey's European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis, who reacted to the repeated pressure applied on Turkey by Greece and the European Union. Urged to reform its migratory policy, Turkey is faced with a dilemma, said Kemal Kirisçi, who heads the centre for European studies at the university of the Bosphorous. Turkey waits to have more guarantees from its European partners on the outcome of its talks, but at the same time fears it will become a waiting zone on the edge of Europe. “Given the lack of serious prospects of membership (…), the Turkish officials fear that such an agreement will transform Turkey into a buffer zone for illegal migrants from the EU and unwanted asylum seekers”, said Mr Kirisçi, as reported in the French daily. (B.C./transl.jl)