EU offers Turkey €3bn to stop refugee flow

The European Union is set to pay Turkey three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in return for stopping the flow of refugees to Europe.

EU leaders gathered in Brussels, Belgium’s capital and home to the headquarters of the EU, to hold talks with Turkey and offer Ankara cash and closer ties with the EU in return for Turkish help in stemming the flow of refugees to Europe, draft conclusions of the summit showed on Sunday.

"Both sides will, as agreed and with immediate effect, step up their active cooperation on migrants who are not in need of international protection, preventing travel to Turkey and the EU, ensuring the application of the established bilateral readmission provisions and swiftly returning migrants who are not in need of international protection to their countries of origin," the draft, seen by Reuters, said.

"This meeting will provide new momentum to relations. It's important in so many aspects because it's the first EU-Turkey summit in 11 years," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters at Ankara airport as he left for Brussels.

"It had already been decided that Turkey should not shoulder the migrant problem alone. A joint action plan has been agreed," he said.

Davutoglu is due to meet the 28 EU national leaders in Brussels for three hours from 4 p.m. local time (1500 GMT).

The Europeans are under pressure to manage the biggest refugee crisis to hit the continent since World War Two.

The crisis has set EU nations in opposition to each other as ‘have not’ countries shift the refugee burden to the wealthy countries, such as Germany and Sweden.    

The EU wants Turkey to use the cash it is offering to improve life for the 2.2 million Syrians now living in Turkey so that they are less likely to take to boats for nearby Greek islands.

The EU also wants Turkey to stop Afghans and other Asians from getting to Europe, and take back people rejected by the EU.

"Both sides agree that the EU-Turkey readmission agreement will become fully applicable from June 2016," the draft conclusions of the meeting said.

"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, the EU thus underlined the importance of burden-sharing within the framework of Turkey-EU cooperation," the draft said.

Brussels will lift “visa requirements for Turkish citizens in the Schengen zone by October 2016 once the requirements of the Roadmap are met," the draft said.

Human rights concerns, such as torture in jails and state-sponsored threats against investigative reporters, as well as oppression of minority Kurds, are unlikely to feature much in the talks on Sunday, diplomats said, due to losing the spotlight to the refugee crisis.

More than 850,000 refugees have entered the EU countries this year with nearly half of them landing on Greece via Turkey.

In an interview with China’s Phoenix TV channel earlier this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country’s violence-stricken nationals make up a large portion of the asylum seekers arriving in Europe, blamed the Western support for terror groups as the main reason behind the ongoing refugee crisis.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk