A provisional EU-Turkey deal to stem the flow of migrants in return for concessions, is not offering Turkey “a free ride”, EU Commission VP Frans Timmermans announced.
Timmermans told a news conference that Turkey would, for example, need to carry out required measures by the end of April to allow Turks visa-free travel into the European Union by the end of June, as Ankara has requested. “We are certainly not giving Turkey a free ride,” he stressed.
He added that Turkish requests to open new “chapters” of its long stalled negotiation on accession to the EU would be considered and said that would need the agreement of EU member states. Cyprus is blocking opening some chapters until Turkey stops excluding it from some existing agreements with the EU.
Timmermans admitted that there were widespread concerns about human rights in Turkey but said that the European Union had an interest in expanding the accession process in order to address those issues. There would be no “blanket returns” to Turkey and that both Greece and Turkey would need to change legislation in order for the scheme to work in accordance with EU and international law.
Three core aspects
He outlined three core aspects associated with any EU agreement with Turkey on the refugee crisis. These were the political, technical and the legal facets, the main goal of which were to not make the situation in Idomeni refugee camp in Greece ‘the norm’, as he said.
He made it clear that there would not be mass repulsions of refugees and regulations guarding individual assessment and asylum provision would be strictly abided by.
On the matter of Turkey’s EU accession process the Commission’s Vice-President stressed that Turkey’s EU accession process and the opening of chapters would depend directly on the country’s reform progress, adding that a similar rigorous formula would be adopted in judging the freeing of travel visas for Turkish nationals to the European Union.
On the more down to earth pressing matters of dealing with the crisis in Greece, Timmermans said that the country should be helped in constructing the necessary reception infrastructures to aid refugees and avoid a full blown humanitarian crisis. The Commission also called on other EU members to accelerate the processes of admitting refugees in accordance to the agreement signed in 2015.
A final deal
EU leaders will discuss the proposals at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday and Timmermans said the Commission believed it was the right thing for the EU to seal a final deal.
He demanded that refugees were not being turned away from Europe and that the EU would ensure they were given full international rights to protection in Turkey if there was conclusion of the accord by which Turkey takes back people reaching Greece.
According to the draft plan, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee direct from Turkey for every one returned to Turkey. Timmermans said initially those resettled would benefit from an existing scheme by which member states offered 22,000 places last year. EU officials say about 18,000 places remain.
Once those are filled, Timmermans said, there were a further 54,000 places, allocated under a different EU scheme intended to take asylum seekers from one EU state to another, but which could be modified to include the relocation of people from Turkey to Europe.
Beyond that, Timmermans noted, it would be necessary for European states to offer many more places to resettle asylum seekers from Turkey. “There is no way, politically or morally, to turn Turkey or Greece into huge refugee camps,” he said.
EU Commission to ask Greece to declare Turkey a “safe third country”
The EU should grant Turkish citizens visa-free access if Turkey meets a “critical mass” of legal conditions, the Commission will propose, offering Ankara concessions.
The Commission will propose how the EU would meet its side of the deal under which Turkey would take back migrants and refugees crossing into the bloc – the main strategy in trying to stem the biggest human migration in Europe since World War Two, an official involved in drafting the paper said.
By suggesting Turkey meets only “critical mass” of requirements on things like judicial reform, the Commission is taking a softer line than some governments such as France which want Ankara to meet 72 requirements before its nearly 80 million citizens can travel to the 28-nation EU without visas.
Rushing the process through to meet a June deadline set in a preliminary EU-Turkey deal reached on March 7, the Commission aims to make a legislative proposal on visa liberalisation in April, which the European Parliament and EU states would have to adopt within weeks.
Opening five new “chapters” in Turkey’s negotiations to join the EU
Addressing a threat by Cyprus to block parts of the deal unless Turkey stops opposing the reunification of the divided island, the Commission paper will propose that opening five new “chapters” in Turkey’s negotiations to join the EU — another promise made in March — would be “conditional”, the official said.
While human rights groups and some governments have concerns about the legality of returning refugees en masse to Turkey, the Commission will ask Greece to declare Turkey a “safe third country”.
This would allow speedier returns, as Athens would be able to send people back even before the end of an appeal procedure for rejected asylum applications, the official said.
The Greek authorities will however continue to process asylum applications case-by-case for all arriving migrants, as international rules decree. According to the preliminary deal, for every migrant returned to Turkey, one refugee would be resettled directly from Turkey to Europe.
Details of which EU countries should receive the resettled refugees will be discussed at the summit where leaders will also be asked to clarify how much more money the bloc is willing to spend to help refugees in Turkey, on top of an already agreed 3 billion euros.
Source: Reuters
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
