Balkan
route closed, EU to declare
Germany
sets aside concerns about Turkish human rights to secure a deal on
migration with Ankara.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
3/6/16, 8:05 PM CET
The Balkan route
taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe is going to be
closed, EU leaders will declare Monday at their summit with Turkey in
Brussels, diplomats and officials said over the weekend.
Their statement —
to be approved by leaders on Monday — was discussed by EU
ambassadors on Sunday afternoon. “Irregular flows of migrants along
the Western Balkans route are coming to an end; this route is now
closed,” according to a copy of the document obtained by POLITICO.
The meeting did not
last long and ambassadors also endorsed the aim to “take forward,
as a matter of priority all the elements of the Commission roadmap,”
according to a diplomatic source, who added that the draft statement
was not controversial. The migration roadmap, which was put out on
Friday, envisages a series of steps for the return to normality in
the Schengen area by December, dismantling the internal border
controls reintroduced by some member states.
The new commitment
to close the Western Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of
migrants and refugees traveling from Greece to Northern Europe would
end the “wave-through policy” that allowed migrants to cross
borders with minimal controls.
The final statement
stresses the need to be aware of other routes that migrants might
take if the road running through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and
Slovenia is shut down. There are fears, especially in Rome, that
migrants will try to travel north through Albania and across the
Aegean Sea to Italy.
EU unease about
Turkey
An agreement at the
summit still faces political hurdles, in particular unease within the
EU over a domestic crackdown in Turkey. Hours after European Council
President Donald Tusk left Ankara last week, Turkish authorities on
Friday seized Zaman, the country’s largest opposition newspaper.
The seizure prompted
a mild censure by Brussels and silence in Berlin, which is eagerly
seeking to get Turkey’s help to slow the flow of migrants into
Europe. “We should not the referee the subject of human rights for
the entire planet,” Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de
Maizière told the Passauer Neue Presse on Saturday.
But there’s enough
discomfort with Turkey’s behavior to cause trouble on Monday. “I
am afraid we could have an intense discussion on that since some are
complaining that the EU has been too soft with Ankara,” said a
diplomat.
The summit is
intended to address the refugee crisis by making it clear that
migrants will be swiftly returned to Turkey and that last year’s
“open-door” policy, that made it possible for more than a million
people to make their way to Germany, is over.
To help ease the
humanitarian strain on Greece, where thousands of migrants are now
stuck after borders were closed further to the north, the EU is
counting on Turkey’s help. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu,
in his meeting in Ankara with Tusk on Thursday, agreed to step up the
return of illegal migrants from Greece as part of a bilateral
readmission program with Athens, another official said.
“On Monday, I
would like us to agree that all available EU tools, including
accelerated relocation, should be used to address the humanitarian
consequences for the refugees, not least in Greece, in a speedy and
effective way,” Tusk wrote in his invitation letter to leaders
who’ll gather in Brussels Monday.
Turkey to accept
returnees
Davutoğlu, who will
take part in the first session of the summit, also confirmed Turkey’s
readiness to take back Syrians rescued in international waters by a
NATO-led operation. NATO on Sunday reached a deal with Frontex, the
EU border agency, on how to coordinate efforts. “We welcome that
Frontex and NATO reached a common understanding today on the
modalities of their cooperation in the Aegean Sea,” said Federica
Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, in a joint statement Sunday
with the Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.
On some days, as
many as two-thirds of the 3,000 people coming into Greece are
non-Syrians. The plan is to give these people a one-way ticket home.
The statement that
was worked on Sunday calls for members to approve a humanitarian
package for Athens, presented by the Commission on Wednesday, before
the next summit of EU leaders on March 17.
Part of the effort
to help Athens includes a speeding up of the existing relocation
programs for 66,400 refugees from Greece that has largely been
moribund, diplomats said. The draft statement calls for action to
“accelerate relocation to alleviate the heavy burden that presently
weighs on Greece.”
Diplomats said they
were optimistic that a consensus will emerge at the summit. The
closure of the Balkan route will also soften the problem of Austria’s
unilateral decision to impose a yearly and daily cap on the number of
refugees the country will accept, a decision branded by the
Commission as a violation of international law, said an official.
Ahead of the summit
on Monday morning Tusk will hold bilateral meetings with some of the
leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish Prime
Minister Davutoğlu, European Commission President Jean-Claude
Juncker, and Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, which
holds the rotating presidency.
Tusk will also meet
with Nicos Anastasiades, leader of the Greek Cypriot government, that
on Monday will graduate from the bailout program three years after
receiving the financial lifeline.
Matthew
Karnitschnig in Berlin contributed reporting to this article.
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