Provisional agreement with Turkey opens way to easing visa rules — European Union summit

“We need a response and an adequate response from the Turkish side; they are our partners in the crisis and the “more for more” principle applies”, he said.

“That implies administrative and legal steps, with a necessary link between visa liberalisation and readmissions”.

She says, “There are European member states who are even thinking of sending troops to the borders of other member states, including to the Croatian border”.

Diplomats said the €3bn were not available, however, and that there was much resistance among national leaders to fast-tracking visa waivers for the Turks.

As leaders gathered, eight migrants were left missing after their boat collided with a Greek rescue vessel near the Greek island of Lesbos – the current point of entry for one in every five migrants arriving in the EU. “What the Turks want in the upcoming months is that we could go towards opening new chapters”.

Turkey also wants a safe haven for refugees in northern Syria, but that idea is opposed by Assad and his main ally, Russia. European Union diplomats worry that Erdoğan may use the migration crisis as added leverage.

Another key part of the agreement still to be finalized, sources said, is the promise to speed up the liberalization of visas for Turkish citizens traveling to Europe. “We won’t be able to order and stem the refugee movement without working together with Turkey”. But details proved elusive and discussions in Ankara will continue in coming days.

Turkish officials presented their EU counterparts with a “wish list” during the talks in Ankara on Thursday, which European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker later talked the leaders through at their summit in Brussels.

“Will negotiate financial support now”, said Council president Donald Tusk”.

Though the plan put no figure on “substantial and concrete new funds” the European Union would offer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the figure of 3 billion euros, which European Union officials said Ankara had requested, had been discussed and seem reasonable. “To be clear, this is not a revision of the framework – this is a revision within the framework”. European Union leaders promised last month to provide hundreds of millions of euros for Syrian refugees and to help Africa better manage its borders, as well as funding experts to fingerprint and screen new arrivals in Italy and Greece.

“He said a decision could be made by early Friday”.

“It’s quite obvious that only a few countries today take the majority of refugees and if these countries now are asked to secure the external borders on top of that, I don’t think it would be what we could call a fair distribution of effort”, Merkel said. But the rest of the summit was devoted to the conflict in Syria and the resulting refugee flow.

The greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War has led to splits between member states over how to respond. Speaking to the Italian Parliament on Thursday, Ban also said all countries are obliged to shoulder the burden of welcoming migrants, not just those on the front lines like Italy and Greece. We can and must do much better here.

The leaders welcome measures to improve border management, a veiled reference to a controversial plan for a European border guard system, which many nations oppose because it would mean allowing security personnel from other nations on their territory.

Emre Peker in Istanbul, Viktoria Dendrinou in Brussels and Andrea Thomas in Berlin contributed to this article.