E.U. Offers Turkey 3 Billion Euros to Stem Migrant Flow
BRUSSELS — Under heavy pressure from Germany to get a grip on Europe’s migrant crisis after months of dithering, European Union leaders met in Brussels on Sunday with Turkey’s prime minister to complete a deal that German Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes will slow the chaotic flood of asylum seekers into the 28-nation bloc.
The meeting, the seventh gathering of European leaders since the spring regarding the highly divisive question of migration, took place days after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane and added a new element of uncertainty to a crisis that has overwhelmed Europe’s slow decision-making process.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, according to diplomats, will be promised 3 billion euros in European aid and other inducements in exchange for Turkish action to stop migrants, most of them from the Middle East and Afghanistan, from reaching Greece and other countries on Europe’s outer fringe. Mr. Davutoglu is standing in for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Brussels meeting.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels before the meeting, Ms. Merkel said Europe had many reasons to work closely with Turkey but that the essential part of the negotiations was the need to “replace illegal migration with legal migration.” Her statement reflected a hope that the unruly flow of asylum-seekers — a mix of refugees fleeing war and economic migrants seeking a better life — can be brought under control before it reaches Europe.
Europe wants Turkey’s help in identifying genuine refugees, notably Syrians, who would be allowed entry in an orderly fashion, and in halting people fleeing poverty who do not have an obvious right to protection under international law.
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, the body representing European leaders, set out Europe’s objective in blunt terms: “Our main goal is to stem the flow of migrants to Europe,” he said, describing Turkey as a “key partner” on issues including counterterrorism and the civil war in Syria.
But he stressed that Europe itself needed to do more to secure its external borders and that it could not “outsource this obligation to any third country,” like Turkey. Failing to protect the Continent’s outer borders, he warned, would mean that one of Europe’s most important achievements, the 26-nation visa-free zone known as Schengen, “will become history.”
Later, as the meeting got underway, Mr. Tusk told the summit that 1.5 million migrants had entered the European Union this year.
It is unclear how secure any agreement reached with Turkey would be. Leaders first endorsed a so-called action plan with Turkey more than a month ago, but it was delayed by haggling over details.
The Europeans still have not agreed on how to raise the 3 billion euros earmarked for Turkey, and putting the agreement into effect will ultimately depend on the Turkish president, Mr. Erdogan.
Europe’s negotiations with Turkey have been dogged by concerns among human rights activists and some European politicians that the country has taken an authoritarian turn under the leadership of Mr. Erdogan and that it regularly violates rights of his critics, journalists and members of the Kurdish minority.
“We have seen a systematic regress of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in Turkey,” Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, said in a statement on Saturday. “It must be crystal clear that cooperation requires respect for basic rights.”
Yet in a series of major concessions, the European Union was offering cash to Turkey to improve the conditions for more than two million Syrians who have taken refuge in the country, in return for help in preventing asylum-seekers from leaving Turkey.
Ms. Merkel on Sunday defended the outreach to Turkey, noting that, despite sheltering so many refugees, it “had received little international support for that and therefore rightly expects that the European Union and the member states attempt to lighten Turkey’s burden.”
Europe was also offering Turkey the chance to resume regular summit meetings, which would be held twice a year, according to a draft copy of the final statement. In addition, Turkey looked set to win a promise to speed up negotiations on visa-free travel for its citizens to the European Union, as well as a resumption of formal negotiations on full membership in the bloc.
In return, Turkey and the Europeans would “with immediate effect, step up their active cooperation on migrants who are not in need of international protection, preventing travel to Turkey and the E.U.,” the draft statement said. Other goals include “swiftly returning migrants who are not in need of international protection to their countries of origin” and “to enhance the fight against criminal smuggling networks.”
Before the summit meeting, a group of countries including Germany discussed expanding the number of refugees who could be resettled from camps outside the bloc to give more migrants a legal path to the Continent. Such an offer could sweeten the deal for Turkey, but any agreement among European countries on expanding resettlement would likely require further talks in the coming weeks.
Talks on closer relations between Europe and Turkey have frequently stalled in the past. Formal negotiations on Turkish membership in the bloc started a decade ago, but there has been resistance from France and Germany, as well as vehement opposition from Cyprus, a member of the union that has been divided since Turkey invaded the north of the island in 1974.
Before the meeting in Brussels, Cyprus succeeded in watering down the offer to Turkey by pressing the rest of the bloc to remove terms that could have accelerated the Turks’ accession talks with Europe.
Europe, however, needs some form of agreement. Its efforts to control the number of people arriving at the union’s external borders have been largely ineffective, and hardly any migrants have been relocated from front-line states like Greece and Italy.
Germany has been “pushing very hard,” so some sort of agreement is to be expected, said one European Union diplomat. But the diplomat also expected “some theatrics” by leaders who want to be seen pushing for a tougher stance with Turkey.
The leaders are meeting in the shadow of the terrorist attacks in France, which have amplified concerns over how migration is affecting cornerstones of the European Union project, including allowing the Schengen agreement.
Two of the attackers who carried out the massacres in Paris on Nov. 13 entered the European Union through Greece, a country that is part of the Schengen area.
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