On Thursday, 3 March the International Organisation for Migration said that nearly 129,500 migrants had arrived in Europe by sea so far in 2016, with a further 1,500 by land. In an effort to find a common approach to Europe’s worsening migrant crisis, particularly in relation to the Western Balkans Route, the 28 EU Heads of State and Government met with Turkish Prime Minister Davutoğlu on Monday, 7 March at a specially convened European Council meeting.

The Joint Action Plan

The Joint Action Plan was signed between the EU and Turkey in October of last year with a view to addressing the migrant crisis. 2.7 million migrants, many of whom have fled the conflict in Syria, are currently hosted in Turkey, while over 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in Europe in 2015 alone. Many of these migrants have entered Europe through Turkey.

The Action Plan identified a series of collaborative actions to be implemented by the European Union and Turkey with the aim of confronting common challenges and assisting Turkey’s efforts in dealing with the large number of people in need of protection in Turkey.

The Talks
Following the meeting with Prime Minister Davutoğlu the EU’s Institutions and Member States committed to increasing political engagement with Turkey, providing Turkey with significant financial support, accelerating the fulfilment of the visa liberalisation roadmap and re-energising the accession process with Turkey. Prime Minister Davutoğlu called for visa liberalisation for 75 million Turks by 1 June, an advance on the October deadline proposed last year. They also agreed to work on the principles of the proposals put forward by the Turkish government. These are:

To return to Turkey all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into the Greek islands with the costs covered by the EU;

• To resettle, for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian from Turkey to the EU Member States, within the framework of the existing commitments. This ‘one in, one out’ proposal was described by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a “breakthrough” in the discussions;
• To accelerate the implementation of the visa liberalisation roadmap with all Member States with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016;
• To speed up the disbursement of the initially allocated €3 billion to ensure funding of a first set of projects before the end of March and decide on additional funding for the Refugee Facility for Syrians;
• To prepare for the decision on the opening of new chapters in the accession negotiations as soon as possible, building on the October 2015 European Council conclusions;
• To work with Turkey in any joint endeavour to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria which would allow for the local population and refugees to live in areas which will be safer.

Beyond the Talks

European Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the summit, said the outcome would show migrants that there was no longer a path into Europe for people seeking a better life. Key details, however, remain to be ironed out. The 28 EU leaders hope to finalise the deal with the Turkish government at another summit taking place from Thursday, 17 to Friday, 18 March.

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