EU and Turkey Reach Deal at Refugee Summit as Greek Demands Reportedly Will Be Met

The European Union and Turkey have agreed to cooperate in order to curb the refugee influx into Europe.
The leaders of the EU’s 28 member states along with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu convened in Brussels to discuss how the union and Turkey can deal with the refugee crisis.
Europe has seen 876,607 migrant and refugee arrivals in 2015. Over 728,000 people have reached the Greek islands, while the vast majority of them cross from Turkey to the East Aegean islands of Lesvos, Chios, and Kos. Amid this ongoing situation and with the EU expecting refugees numbers to reach three million by 2017, the union’s leaders have been reaching out to Turkey in hopes of halting this phenomenon.
Turkey has 2,181,293 Syrian refugees according to the latest available data by the United Nations. European Council President Donald Tusk noted following the meeting that the EU has agreed to provide Turkey with three billion euros to ensure the well-being and proper management of Syrian refugees.
“Turkey remains a key strategic partner for Europe, but also a candidate country of the EU. We agreed that the accession process need to be re-energized. We welcomed the announcement to hold the Intergovernmental Conference for opening chapter 17 on economic and monetary policy, while preparatory work on opening other chapters is taking place. Let me stress that we are not re-writing the EU enlargement policy. The negotiating framework and the relevant conclusions continue to apply, including its merit-based nature and the respect for European values, also on human rights,” Tusk said.
Real.gr cites government sources that claim Turkey will commit to combating migrant smuggling rings and will readmit refugees back into the country, as Europe also accepts to take in refugees who are in Turkey. There will further be a Turkish mechanism that will supervise the return of certain migrants to their country of origin. Also, the agreed removal of the visa restriction for Turkish citizens traveling in the Schengen Area will happen within a specific timeline.
Excertps from the European Union’s Official Statement on the Summit
Today the Leaders of the European Union met in Brussels with their Turkish counterpart. Turkey has been a candidate since 1999 and negotiating for accession since 2005
Turkey and the EU discussed the importance of overcoming the common challenges ahead. In line with the conclusions of the European Council of 15 October, they agreed that the accession process needs to be re-energized. They are determined to confront and surmount the existing risks and threats in a concerted manner to reinforce the European Project. Recalling the final declaration of the last G20 in Antalya, as well as the 2249 UNSC resolution, Turkey and the EU reaffirm that the fight against terrorism remains a priority.
For this purpose it was agreed that a structured and more frequent high-level dialogue is essential to explore the vast potential of Turkey-EU relations, which has not been realised fully yet. In this framework, both sides agreed to have regular Summits twice a year, in an appropriate format. Regular summits will provide a platform to assess the development of Turkey-EU relations and discuss international issues. Regular discussions and cooperation on foreign and security policy should be enhanced including on counter-terrorism against the background of serious security challenges notably the rising threat of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
The EU welcomed the commitment by Turkey to accelerate the fulfilment of the Visa Roadmap benchmarks vis-à-vis all participating Member States. The European Commission will present the second progress report on the implementation by Turkey of the visa liberalisation roadmap by early March 2016. Both sides agree that the EU-Turkey readmission agreement will become fully applicable from June 2016 in order for the Commission to be able to present its third progress report in autumn 2016 with a view to completing the visa liberalisation process i.e. the lifting of visa requirements for Turkish citizens in the Schengen zone by October 2016 once the requirements of the Roadmap are met.
The EU will provide immediate and continuous humanitarian assistance in Turkey. It will also expand significantly its overall financial support. A Refugee Facility for Turkey was established by the Commission to coordinate and streamline actions financed in order to deliver efficient and complementary support to Syrians under temporary protection and host communities in Turkey. The EU is committed to provide an initial 3 billion euro of additional resources. The need for and nature of this funding will be reviewed in the light of the developing situation. As Turkey hosts more than 2.2 million Syrians and as it has spent 8 billion US Dollars, the EU thus underlined the importance of burden-sharing within the framework of Turkey-EU cooperation. In this context, they underlined the contribution by Member State and existing EU resettlement schemes and programmes.
Turkey and the EU have decided to activate the Joint Action Plan to step up their cooperation for support of Syrians under temporary protection. Results must be achieved in particular in stemming the influx of irregular migrants.  Equally, they welcomed the intention of Turkey to adopt immediately measures to further improve the socio-economic situation of the Syrians under temporary protection. Both sides underlined their shared commitment to take decisive and swift action to enhance the fight against criminal smuggling networks.
They welcomed the establishment of a High Level Energy Dialogue and Strategic Energy Cooperation, which had been launched in Ankara on 16 March 2015. A regular exchange of information on energy cooperation at the global and regional level  serves to the benefit of both sides. They agreed to hold the second meeting of this kind in the first quarter of 2016.
They took note of the launching of preparatory steps for upgrading the Customs Union. After completion of this preparatory work by both sides, formal negotiations could be launched towards the end of 2016.
All these elements will have to be taken forward and monitored closely. Turkey and the EU are determined to advance together the widespread spectrum of their actual agenda to ensure that this fresh impetus yields concrete results.

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