The European Union and Turkey have reached an agreement to reduce the flow of migrants, European Council President Donald Tusk said on the results of the EU-Turkey summit on migration.
"The first step was taken today. We agreed that the implementation of the joint action plan remains a priority. We reached an agreement to reduce migration flows to Europe,’’ Tass cites him as saying.
"We have agreed to work on the basis of the following principles: the return of all new illegal migrants arriving via Turkey to Greece, the acceleration of the plan of visa liberalization, the acceleration of the release of 3 billion euros and additional funding to help Syrian refugees, the preparation for the opening of new chapters in the negotiations on Turkey's accession in the EU, the possibility of establishing safe areas in Syria, as well as the resettlement of Syrian refugees on the principle of "one for one,’’ the head of the European Council said, stressing that all of these principles will continue to be worked out in the coming days, starting from the next EU summit which is scheduled for 17-18 March in Brussels.
Tusk also said that the "Balkan route" transit of migrants in the EU is closed now:
"The summit lasted a long time because the leaders were taking other important decisions." The Balkan route "is closed to migration flows now,’’ he said, stressing that this means the cessation of illegal flows of refugees through the Western Balkan route.
The head of the European Commission (EC), Jean-Claude Juncker said in turn that the EU leaders approved the European Commission's proposal to allocate 700 million euros to solve the migration crisis of the most affected member states, in particular Greece. In addition, according to him, the summit supported a plan presented by the European Commission for the restoration of free movement within the Schengen area by the end of the year.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the exchange principle of illegal immigrants arriving in Greece with the Syrian refugees from Turkey with the European Union, offered by Turkey, was a real breakthrough, RIA Novosti reports.
French President Francois Hollande said that Turkey might rely on additional financial support from the EU in 2018 if it was necessary.
"In the matter of refugees Turkey will need to make additional efforts to return them, in this case a new grant may be allocated at the end of 2018,’’ Hollande said after a meeting with EU heads of state.and Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels.
At the same time, Russian politicians view the results of the summit rather sceptically.
The EU-Turkey deal looks like a success, but the negotiations haven’t been completed yet, the agreement on the migrants is a set of six general principles to be detailed by the EU summit on March 17-18th, and the devil may hide in the details, the head of the Federation Council international committee Konstantin Kosachev said today.
According to the head of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrei Klishas, the change in the migration policy between the EU and Turkey and the replacement of illegal immigrants with "legal migrants" will lead to a flow of terrorists from Syria to Europe.
