EU and Turkey close to groundbreaking migrant deal

Duncan Robinson and Alex Barker in Brussels

Turkey and Germany have negotiated a groundbreaking deal to systematically turn back all Syrians and economic migrants reaching Greek islands in exchange for sweeteners for Ankara, including early access to European visas and billions in extra funding.

Other EU leaders were blindsided by the bold Turco-German text, unexpectedly presented shortly before their summit on Monday, but emerged after 12 hours of difficult discussions with the outline of a deal they hope to finalise next week.

The mass returns policy represents the boldest gamble yet taken by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to cut back the 2,000 strong daily migration flow across the Aegean and stabilise her political position at home.

It comes as Europe’s migration response takes a harder edge, with borders along a western Balkans route used by almost a million migrants all but closed. “The days of irregular migration to Europe are over,” said Donald Tusk, the European Council president.

Turkey’s co-operation came in exchange for conditional EU backing for Ankara’s wishlist on extra funding, visa-free travel in Europe’s borderless Schengen zone, accelerated membership talks and the direct resettlement to Europe of as many Syrians as Turkey accepts back from Greece.

Although the first draft of the proposal emerged after six hours of joint talks on Sunday night, Ms Merkel insisted the master plan was primarily the work of Ahmet Davutoglu, her Turkish counterpart. She added that she wholeheartedly endorsed this a “qualitative step forward”.

“This proposal tabled by the Turkish side is a breakthrough if it is implemented,” Ms Merkel said. “The cornerstones of this whole structure, of this whole edifice underpinning this proposal, is something we support and we want to negotiate something as quickly as possible.”

Some senior EU diplomats and EU leaders were angered by Ms Merkel’s handling of the process, which circumvented and trumped parallel talks led by EU institutions, which were working up a plan for the EU to send back only non-Syrian migrants.

The hard bargaining was Europe’s second big push in less than three months to secure Ankara’s support on migration — an endeavour that has led many EU leaders to muffle their concerns about the Turkish government’s authoritarian turn.

Turkey and Germany have negotiated a groundbreaking deal to systematically turn back all Syrians and economic migrants reaching Greek islands in exchange for sweeteners for Ankara, including early access to European visas and billions in extra funding.

Other EU leaders were blindsided by the bold Turco-German text, unexpectedly presented shortly before their summit on Monday, but emerged after 12 hours of difficult discussions with the outline of a deal they hope to finalise next week.

The mass returns policy represents the boldest gamble yet taken by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to cut back the 2,000 strong daily migration flow across the Aegean and stabilise her political position at home.

It comes as Europe’s migration response takes a harder edge, with borders along a western Balkans route used by almost a million migrants all but closed. “The days of irregular migration to Europe are over,” said Donald Tusk, the European Council president.

Turkey’s co-operation came in exchange for conditional EU backing for Ankara’s wishlist on extra funding, visa-free travel in Europe’s borderless Schengen zone, accelerated membership talks and the direct resettlement to Europe of as many Syrians as Turkey accepts back from Greece.

Although the first draft of the proposal emerged after six hours of joint talks on Sunday night, Ms Merkel insisted the master plan was primarily the work of Ahmet Davutoglu, her Turkish counterpart. She added that she wholeheartedly endorsed this a “qualitative step forward”.

“This proposal tabled by the Turkish side is a breakthrough if it is implemented,” Ms Merkel said. “The cornerstones of this whole structure, of this whole edifice underpinning this proposal, is something we support and we want to negotiate something as quickly as possible.”

Some senior EU diplomats and EU leaders were angered by Ms Merkel’s handling of the process, which circumvented and trumped parallel talks led by EU institutions, which were working up a plan for the EU to send back only non-Syrian migrants.

The hard bargaining was Europe’s second big push in less than three months to secure Ankara’s support on migration — an endeavour that has led many EU leaders to muffle their concerns about the Turkish government’s authoritarian turn.

Turkey’s willingness to take back migrants came on condition of Europe opening a legal route for Syrian asylum seekers to pursue directly from Turkey. The principle is to “resettle, for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian from Turkey to the EU member states”, according to the communique.

Up to 50,000 such placements will be covered within the EU’s existing plan to relocate refugees. EU officials expect that the tough returns policy will deter migrants and ensure that only tens and not hundreds of thousands of resettlements will be required over coming months.

Mark Rutte, the Dutch premier who took part in the critical round of talks with Ms Merkel on Sunday, said Turkey had “moved the goalposts but in a positive sense”.

“They did what we wanted them to do which was present a model which would eventually lead to them taking out the whole business model of the boat smugglers and the terrible scenes we have seen in the Aegean,” he said. “It is a positive. I would love for all my negotiating partners to move goalposts when they do it in my direction.”

It is a positive. I would love for all my negotiating partners to move goalposts when they do it in my direction

In return, the EU said it would dramatically speed up its process to relax Turkey visa requirements. Mr Davutoglu said: “By the end of June, Turkish citizens will be able to come to [the Schengen area] without visas”.

However Germany, France and the EU commission stressed that this attempt to fast-track the decision would not come at the expense of the visa waiver assessment criteria, which requires Ankara to take difficult political decisions, such as effectively recognising Cyprus and its Greek-Cypriot government in Nicosia.

Only last week the commission said Turkey had made “limited progress”.

François Hollande, the French president, said: “It could happen, if the conditions are respected. And there are 72 conditions to respect. If the conditions aren’t respected, the visa liberalisation won’t happen either.”

Another point of contention was a request for the EU to continue sharing the financial burden of supporting more than 2m Syrian refugees in Turkey. Mr Davutoglu insisted Turkey was not “begging” for money to support Syrians. While diplomats discussed an extra €3bn of aid for Turkey from 2018, once its existing €3bn pledge of support for 2016 and 2017 is exhausted, the precise amount was left out of the preliminary deal.

The final outstanding issue is Ankara’s insistence that the EU fast-track the opening of several negotiating chapters in its EU membership bill. While Germany is relaxed about this, Cyprus has adamantly refused to cede ground until its own recognition dispute with Turkey is resolved. The summit agreed only to open chapters “as soon as possible”, but gave no date.

Ms Merkel acknowledged that other countries found some parts of the deal difficult, including the new funds and the move towards reopening EU membership negotiations — something that is particularly anathema to Cyprus, which has held up multiple membership chapters because Ankara fails to recognise its Greek-Cypriot government. “That’s going to be an uphill battle,” she said of Nicosia’s objections.

Original