EU
and Turkey postpone deal on refugees
European
leaders need more time to digest Ankara’s proposals on resettling
refugees.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
AND BARBARA SURK 3/8/16, 12:44 AM CET Updated 3/8/16, 2:36 AM CET
EU leaders and
Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu failed to reach a
far-reaching agreement on the refugee crisis at their emergency
summit on Monday, forcing them to reconvene in 10 days’ time when
they hope to finalize a deal.
Ankara’s new
demands on the eve of the EU-Turkish summit — for more money, visa
waivers for Turks, a kick-start to EU accession talks, and a
commitment to resettle refugees — took EU leaders by surprise, and
angered many who had arrived in Brussels expressing optimism about a
long-overdue show of solidarity.
But after months of
failure to make progress on the migration issue, Europe’s political
leaders could not afford to walk away from their 12 hours of talks
without something to show for it. So they were left to declare they’d
reached a tentative agreement on the “main principles” of several
of the proposals — with details to be worked out ahead of another
summit on March 17-18.
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel told reporters after the summit ended that the Turkey’s
proposals are “a breakthrough if it can be implemented,” adding
that a lot of work remained to be done to have the “fine details”
ready by the next summit.
European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker said the agreement, which required
further discussion, would be a “game-changer” that would “make
clear that the only viable way to come to Europe is through legal
channels.”
Davutoğlu said his
country’s objective too was “to prevent human smugglers and to
help people who want to come to Europe through legal ways and in a
disciplined manner.”
However, European
leaders balked at some of Turkey’s last-minute demands for helping
Europe to cope with the flow of refugees, which included doubling
Ankara’s demand for financial aid by asking for an extra €3
billion, speeding up visa waivers for Turks traveling to the EU and
giving new momentum to stalled EU accession talks.
EU leaders were also
said to have reacted negatively to comments early Monday by Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who complained in a televised speech
that the EU had yet to deliver on its prior commitments — even
though Brussels had just sent part of the money from the original €3
billion deal a few days earlier.
“It’s important
for us to see this as a package,” Davutoğlu told a joint news
conference with Juncker and Tusk. “This is a humanitarian process,
helping refugees, but at the same time it is strategic issue for us
as Turkey — that Turkey will be accepted into the EU and Turkish
acceleration will create a new momentum.”
Long, difficult
evening
Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán said he would veto a proposal under which
Turkey would take refugees from the Greek islands in exchange for the
EU automatically taking an equal number of asylum-seekers from Turkey
and resettling them in the EU.
Under the final
statement agreed by EU leaders, those measures will be discussed in
the coming days, but it remains to be seen how many of them will
agree to the Turkish wish list.
Merkel went into the
summit objecting to a proposed declaration that the West Balkan route
used by migrants to reach northern Europe was “closed.” Arguing
that this did not reflect the situation on the ground, with refugees
continuing to use the route, the chancellor demanded that the
language be changed to “irregular flows of migrants along the
Western Balkans route have now come to an end.”
“In principle it’s
closed. And in principle it’s also open. In reality very few
migrants still use it,” remarked Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir
Orešković.
However, leaders
remained hopeful that the foundations had been laid for a lasting
refugee deal with the Turks.
“If security at
borders is guaranteed, if Turkey respects its duty in terms of
readmission — it is a complete system which will allow us to come
back to [the passport-free area] Schengen,” said French President
François Hollande. “We finally have a coherent and finally a
European action based on objectives and instruments that can be
useful.”
Britain’s David
Cameron said it had been a “long and difficult evening, but I think
we do have the basis for a breakthrough.”
Cameron and other EU
leaders took the opportunity to complain to Davutoğlu about the
Turkish authorities’ takeover of a leading opposition newspaper,
Zaman, last Friday.
The paper was taken
over at the request of a prosecutor investigating one of Erdoğan’s
main opponents, highlighting one of the main sticking points to
Turkish accession to the EU — namely, the lack of respect for human
rights and freedom of speech.
“Freedom of speech
is our basic value, a value of Turkish democracy,” said Davutoğlu.
“I am against any restriction regarding freedom of speech and
freedom of the media.”
Maïa de la Baume,
Hans von der Burchard, Matthew Karnitschnig and Craig Winneker
contributed to this article.
Authors:
Jacopo Barigazzi
and Barbara Surk
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