European Union reaches deal with Turkey to reduce migrant flow into Europe

Europe’s most challenging crisis can’t be fully resolved even with Turkey’s help if the EU doesn’t pay enough attention to its external borders, European Council President Donald Tusk said. “We made a decision to start negotiations on Chapter 17 (negotiations on Turkey’s accession to the EU) for economic and financial policies”, he said.

“Turkey must do its utmost to contain the illegal immigration into Europe and the number of refugees has to decline substantially”, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

“This is a historic day and a historic meeting, the first meeting of this kind since 11 years”, the Turkish premier added.

“I am grateful to all European leaders for this new beginning”, he said. He said any funds of a 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) package to help Turkey deal with the migrants on its territory will be released progressively as the commitments are checked.

In a report by the Wall Street Journal, the Turkey’s government has finally closed a deal with the European Union on Sunday for the Turkey’s capital city of Ankara to take some action to get rid of the flow of migrants into the European continent. Turkey is also set to be promised easier travel for its citizens to access Europe if its government fulfills commitments on migrant flows in the coming year.

An EU-Turkey deal struck at a summit in Brussels is unlikely to significantly slow the flow of migrants to Europe or bring Ankara much closer to joining the bloc, analysts said Monday.

“What the Europeans are asking of Turkey is unrealistic and unrealisable”, said Cengiz Aktar, a political scientist from Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University. It also agreed to have two summits with Turkey each year.

He also added that despite the deal “we have not forgotten the differences that still remain with Turkey over human rights and freedom of the press, and we will return to them”.

At the emergency summit, European Union leaders will look to offer Turkey 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion), an easing of visa restrictions and the fast-tracking of its European Union membership process in return for tightening border security and taking back some migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.

Aware of a sense of desperation in Europe for a solution to a crisis that has called into question its own cohesion and the future of its Schengen passport-free travel zone, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has driven a hard bargain.

The EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said both Tusk and Cameron know the substance of the reforms, and that the talks were “more about the process itself”.

“The amount of money we’re offering is ludicrous”, an ambassador from one of the bigger countries in the European Union told the Guardian.

More than two million Syrian refugees have fled from their home country to Turkey.

A refugee couple from Syria pose with their twin babies on Eftalou Beach, west of the port of Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey on September 21, 2015.