BY FRANCESCO
GUARASCIO
Leaders of the European Union and Turkey were set to sign an agreement
on Sunday offering Ankara cash and closer ties in return for help in stemming
the flow of migrants to Europe, draft conclusions of their summit showed.
Aware of a sense of desperation in Europe for a solution
to a crisis that has called into question the future of its passport-free
travel zone, Ankara has been driving a hard bargain.
Diplomats said the 28 EU governments had struggled through Saturday to agree
a final offer.
The draft deal seen by Reuters made clear the nature of the trade-off,
involving Turkish help in handling the flow of migrants to the EU, expected to
reach 1.5 million people this year alone, and the EU offering cash and
restarting talks on EU accession.
"Both sides will ... with immediate effect, step up their active
cooperation on migrants..., preventing travel to Turkey and the EU, ensuring
... readmission provisions and swiftly returning migrants who are not in need
of international protection to their countries of origin," the draft said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, meeting the 28 EU national
leaders for three hours from 1500 GMT (10:00 a.m. EST), said on arrival for the
talks in Brussels that it was a "new beginning" for Turkey's efforts
to become an EU member, stalled for 10 years.
"Today is a historic day in our accession process to the EU,"
Davutoglu told reporters. "I am grateful to all European leaders for this
new beginning," he said.
Summit chairman Donald Tusk, however, stressed that the meeting was
primarily about stemming the flow of migrants.
"I have called this summit to decide in the first place what the EU
and Turkey must do together to cope with the migration crisis. Our main goal is
to stem the flow of migrants to Europe," Tusk said.
The Europeans, none more so than German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, are under pressure to manage the biggest influx of people since
World War Two, the bulk of them to Germany. The crisis has helped populist
opponents and set nations against each other, straining the open borders of the
EU.
"We will agree on the EU Turkey
action plan today," Merkel said on arrival for the summit. "One main
part of this EU-Turkey action plan will be how we can replace illegal migration
by legal migration, how we can improve the situation of refugees within
Turkey," she said.
Measures the EU has taken in recent months
have done little to control migrant movements. While winter weather may lower
the numbers for a few months, it is also worsening the plight of tens of
thousands stuck by closing borders in the Balkans.
Sunday's summit, called just days ago as
Brussels tried to clinch a deal offered over a month ago, has been complicated
by Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.
That has complicated European efforts to
re-engage with Moscow, despite a continued frost over Ukraine, in order to try
to advance a peace in Syria that could end the flight of refugees and contain
Islamic State.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said
tension between Ankara and Moscow over the downing of the warplane were of
"enormous concern" and the EU's foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini said the incident should not affect the prospect of finding a
political deal on Syria.
The Islamist group's attack on Paris two
weeks ago has heightened public calls in the EU for more controls on people
arriving from Syria.
CASH
ON TABLE
Under the draft deal the EU is offering 3
billion euros ($3.2 billion) to improve the livelihood of the 2.2 million
Syrians now living in Turkey so that they are less likely to board boats for
nearby Greek islands.
The EU wants Turkish authorities to make
that journey more difficult and to keep out more of the Afghans and other
Asians who cross Turkey on their way to Europe. Ankara is also to take back
people who reach Greece but fail to get political asylum.
"Both sides agree that the EU-Turkey
readmission agreement will become fully applicable from June 2016," the
draft conclusions of the meeting said.
Turkey has pressed for more money, and the
draft left the door open to adjust the amount later.
"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.
In the draft, Turks are also promised
visa-free travel in Europe if they fulfill commitments on migrant flows.
The draft talks of "completing the
visa liberalization 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."
EU leaders also pledge in the draft to
"re-energize" talks on Turkey joining the EU. Diplomats said Turkey
would see talks on economic cooperation open on Dec. 14.
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