EU summit to address obstacles to refugee deal

EU officials have warned that significant obstacles to an EU-Turkey deal remain, ahead of a key two-day summit which begins today in Brussels.

Leaders of the 28 EU member states, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, will seek to reach agreement on the ambitious resettlement plan, which was etched out at a summit on March 7th.

But concerns still remain about key aspects of the deal, including the offer of visa liberalisation for Turkey, a controversial "one for one" refugee resettlement plan, and an acceleration of accession negotiations with Turkey. Cyprus, which has had a decades-long territorial dispute with Turkey, has said it could block the deal.

In a letter to EU leaders ahead of the summit, European Council president Donald Tusk said the deal could only move forward if Turkey supports the settlement talks in Cyprus. Among the issues on the table was the possibility of Turkey opening its ports to Cypriot ships, a move that would signal a breakthrough in Cypriot-Turkish relations.

With political negotiations expected to continue right up to the start of the summit, the European Commission yesterday provided details of how the resettlement plan with Turkey might work.

Temporary measure

The proposal – which would see one Syrian refugee resettled from Turkey to the

European Union

in exchange for every new migrant returned to Turkey from

Greece

– will be implemented as a temporary measure, before a more long-term resettlement programme is activated. Under the plan, places that have not been filled under the EU’s existing relocation and resettlement plans agreed last year will be first deployed.

Approximately 18,000 of the 22,000 places offered under an EU resettlement scheme remain open, as well as a further 54,000 places under the relocation scheme. It is intended that the relocation schemes can be modified to become a direct resettlement scheme, which is likely to be voluntary in nature.

Under the resettlement scheme, each migrant will be individually assessed, with the commission insisting there would be no “blanket return” of migrants from Greece to Turkey.

Broad-based support

While

Germany

will be keen to ensure it has broad-based support for the voluntary resettlement scheme for Turkey, any definite commitment from other member states is unlikely to be included in the summit’s final communique.

Another contentious issue is visa liberalisation for Turkey, with France one of a number of countries voicing concern about the proposal to bring forward visa-free access for Turkish citizens to June subject to conditions. Under the existing EU-Turkey roadmap, Turkey must fulfil 72 conditions to qualify for visa-free access to the Schengen area.

European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said yesterday that Turkey would need to carry out the required measures by April in order to allow visa-free travel by the end of June.

Human rights groups continued to voice concern about the proposed deal. While welcoming the proposal to assess each migrant's application for asylum individually, Amnesty International saidthat "making refugee resettlement offers dependent on the number of people prepared to risk their lives is simply wrong".

Mr Timmermans denied that the EU was giving Turkey a “free ride”. While the EU was aware of widespread concerns about human rights issues in Turkey, he said that the EU had an interest in pursuing accession in order to address those issues.