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| The Grand Turk | ||
| EU, Turkey Agree 3 Billion Euro Aid Deal to Stem Migrant Crisis | ||
| 2015-11-30 | ||
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was a "historic day" and vowed that his country would keep its promises, in the face of skepticism from some countries in the 28-member EU.
"We will also step up our assistance to Syrian refugees in Turkey through a new Refugee Facility of three billion euros," the former Polish premier added. Turkey's progress in meeting the terms on the deal would be reviewed at least once a month, Tusk said. A long history of wariness between Brussels and Ankara, coupled with European concerns over human rights and Turkey's role in the Syrian conflict, including the shooting down of a Russian warplane in the last week, made the negotiations difficult. - Rights issues 'not forgotten' - Juncker insisted that the three billion euros "are not being given with no strings attached." 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." Two Turkish journalists charged with "spying" over their reports about Ankara's alleged arms supplies to Syrian rebels had urged the EU on Saturday not to compromise on rights at the summit. Davutoglu, who was standing in for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the deal would "re-energize" Turkey's EU accession process, which has made little headway since it started in 2005. "This is a historic day and a historic meeting, the first meeting of this kind since 11 years," the Turkish premier added. "Turkey will be fulfilling all the promises of the joint plan," he said, adding that "this three billion euros is to be spent for refugees in Turkey, it's not for Turkey." Turkey is the main gateway for migrants and refugees to reach Europe, and Germany has pushed for the summit as it is the main destination for most of the people arriving in the bloc. - Turkey's EU bid boosted - Under the agreement, Turkey will take steps including cracking down on people smugglers and cooperating with the EU on the return of people who do not qualify as refugees. Turkey will meanwhile get its wish for the acceleration of its bid for membership of the EU, with only one of 35 so-called "chapters" in the accession process completed in a decade of stop-start talks. The EU agreed to open Chapter 17 of Turkey's accession process -- covering economic and monetary policy -- by mid-December. It also agreed to have two summits with Turkey each year. But the summit conclusions deliberately left future steps vague, saying that preparations for the opening of further chapters would start in the first three months of 2016, but dropping a mention of five chapters that had appeared in an earlier draft. Brussels also committed to easing the rules for visas to visit the EU's Schengen passport-free area by October 2016, a major demand by Ankara. The talks were complicated by resistance in particular by Cyprus, due to decades of tensions with Turkey on the divided east Mediterranean island. The case for cooperation with Turkey comes against a backdrop of growing security concerns over the migrant crisis, especially after the November 13 attacks in Paris, claimed by the Islamic State group (IS), which left 130 people dead. | ||
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #6 Chucking a wobbly means throwing a tantrum. |
| Posted by: Betty Throlurong4975 2015-11-30 18:33 |
| #5 Isn't the term "jizya"? anon1, what does "chucked a wobbly" mean? Has a nice ring. Is it similar to "had a cow" or "shit bricks?" |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2015-11-30 14:57 |
| #4 How about spending the money on border guards with automatic weapons and concertina wire? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2015-11-30 11:56 |
| #3 you are kidding me this is straight out of the playbook from Indonesia another Islamic nation. Indonesia sent down scores of refugee boats to Australia causing chaos We paid them money to stop them. they would reduce a bit then increase till we paid more. until we got a Liberal government that turned back the boats and cut back the aid. indonesia chucked a wobbly but the boats dried up. Turkey is just doing exactly the same as Indonesia. perhaps they learnt after HT members from Australia flew to Ankara - maybe they shared the wisdom. |
| Posted by: anon1 2015-11-30 10:30 |
| #2 Meanwhile, Turkey continues to bomb Kurdish towns and villages along the southern border. Meanwhile, the USA finds excuses not to bomb oil tanker trucks that help to fund ISIS. Meanwhile, Russian activity in Syria's northwest have checked the US presence at Turkey's Incirlik air base. |
| Posted by: Spomong Bourbon8696 2015-11-30 07:42 |
| #1 EU gives them 3 billion euros, Russians drop 3 billion rubles worth of munitions on their heads. What is it about Turkey that attracts all these expenditures? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-11-30 02:31 |