Leaders of EU Turkey to discuss cooperation in tackling refugee crisis
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) >The leaders of theEUandTurkeywill meet at an international summit in Brussels on Monday to discuss their cooperation in tackling the migrant crisis.
At the European Council of 18-19 February the heads of state or government of theEUmember states decided to hold a special meeting withTurkeyin March. The leaders are expected to reaffirm that their priority lies in the full and speedy implementation of the EU-Turkey action plan in stemming migration flows and countering humantraffickingandsmugglingnetworks. In preparation for the summit European Council PresidentDonald Tusktraveled to the main countries of theWestern Balkanmigrant route between March 1 and 4. In a telephone conversation withNATOSecretary-GeneralJens Stoltenberg Tusk discussed the progress of the cooperation between the Alliance and theEU's external borders agencyFrontexin the Aegean Sea. The European Council President also had meetings with Turkish PresidentRecep Erdoganand Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Despite the good progress on some of the actions of the EU-Turkey action plan the number of illegal entries fromTurkeytoGreeceremains far too high. Following a press conference with Davutoglu the summit will resume with a working session between the leaders of the 28 member states. TheEUleaders are expected to agree on the full application of theSchengenBorders Code in order to close theWestern Balkanmigrant route and the reinforcement of thehumanitarian assistancetorefugees particularly to Greece. At the previous EU-Turkey summit in November last year the Union committed itself to provide an initial EUR 3 B of additional resources to Ankara to help it deal with the high number of Syrian refugees. In exchange Ankara pledged to stem the flow of migrants crossing fromTurkeyinto southeastern Europe. Ahead of the meeting Tusk said that for the first time since the beginning of themigrant crisis he could see a European consensus emerging.
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