EU leaders meeting for a summit in Brussels late Thursday agreed to give "political support" for an action plan for Turkey to help it manage its refugee emergency. Under the plan, the EU offers Turkey up to 3 billion euros in aid, easier access to EU visas and accelerated membership talks, although negotiations are to continue in Ankara on details.
But some countries are concerned about authoritarian moves by Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government that he led until he was elected president in August 2014. Violence resumed between the security forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terror group after a two-and-a-half-year lull -- in what critics see as a political maneuver on the part of Erdoğan aimed at diverting more nationalist votes to the AK Party in the Nov. 1 election – while pressure on the media has been growing with prosecution and intimidation of journalists and media organizations.
"While the new understanding that the EU and Turkey need each other is a step in the right direction, it is wrong for EU leaders to remain silent on the worrying escalation in Turkey,” Rebecca Harms, co-president of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, said in a statement.
“This lack of criticism, combined with the promises to Erdogan in this agreement, risk creating the impression that the EU supports the irresponsible politics of the Erdogan government just two weeks before the elections. This will also deprive the EU of leverage in trying to convince the AKP to return to the democratic process,” she said, adding: “The EU Member States should not make Erdoğan into their border guard-in-chief.”
[todayszaman.com]
16/10/15
--
-
Related:
EU, Turkey agree on migrant ‘action plan’
Second day of EU summit in Brussels cancelled
Member states of the European Union (EU) are urged to accelerate their delivery on agreed measures, especially their financial pledges, to mitigate Europe's biggest refugee crisis in recent history during the summit held in Brussels on Thursday...
---
EU requests Turkey's help to stem flow of refugees
EU offers Turkey a possible €3bn in aid and the prospect of easier travel visas and "re-energised" talks on joining the bloc in return for its help stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Erdogan says EU woke up late to Turkey's role on migrants, no aid deal yet...
ReplyDeletePresident Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday the European Union had woken up too late to Turkey's importance in stemming the flow of refugees from Syria and accused it of insincerity in talks on Turkish membership despite recent overtures.
EU leaders said overnight they had agreed with Erdogan a migration "action plan", offering a possible 3 billion euro ($3.4 billion) in aid to Turkey to help halt the migrant flow to Europe.
But Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the plan had not taken final shape and it was wrong to give the impression that Turkey wanted a certain amount of funds to keep refugees in Turkey.
Erdogan said his NATO nation's proximity to Syria and its key role in handling the refugee crisis had strengthened its case for EU membership.
"The West and Europe's security and stability is contingent on our security and stability. They have accepted this now. In the talks I held in Brussels last week they accepted all this. It can't happen without Turkey," Erdogan told a conference in Istanbul...............reuters.com
16/10/15