(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) "Deal. Breakthrough with Turkey" read the tweet from Martin Selmayr the spokesman of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monay night referring to the EU agreement with Turkey on the refugee crisis.
The ultimate test of the deal however will come on March 17-18 when the fine details are hammered out at the European Council. The EU-Turkey summit in Brussels followed the shutdown of borders along the migrants so-called Balkan route which has left thousands of people stranded in northern Greece.
Heavy rain has added to the migrants' woes and has prompted warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis. Greek officials believe another 100000 arrivals are about to reach Greek shores by the end of March. Exact details of the deal are not yet finessed but Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's shopping list included much more money from the EU to take back rejected asylum seekers from Europe visa liberalization for Turkish nationals and accelerated talks on Turkey's long-stalled EU membership bid. The EU has immediately doubled its financial aid package to 6 billion euro in exchange for Turkey keeping refugees on its soil and taking back rejected aylum claimants. "There has been no more important European Union summit for years than the one that took place in Brussels on Monday" the UK Guardian said in an editorial. However some Eastern European countries are threatening to sink the agreement still opposed to the plan to resettle migrants directly to European states from Turkey under fixed quotas. "PM #Orban has vetoed EU-Turkey plan to relocate asylum seekers directly from Turkey" the spokesman of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban wrote on Twitter. Turkey says its stiff demands are fair given that the country has already given shelter to almost 3 million refugees from the Middle East. The tide of people fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq is not likely to stop soon as Greek authorities said that up to 2000 refugees continue to arrive on the Greek islands daily. “With these new proposals we aim to rescue refugees discourage those who misuse and exploit their situation and find a new era in Turkey-EU relations” Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu said in Brussels. But he told European leaders that Turkey wanted more for its citizens in exchange for helping the EU out of the crisis. Davutoglu also met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and requested "a more visible NATO presence" at the Turkey-Syria border.