Erdogan Calls the EU to Share the Burden of the Refugees

• 05.23.2016, 20:40
•  Europe,  Region,  World

Turkey threatened to suspend all agreements with the EU, if Brussels continues its policy of "double standards".

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan said today that his country accepts more refugees than any other country in the world and called on the EU to share the burden.

"In order to control illegal immigration Europe and Turkey must work together to create legal mechanisms, such as the agreement of March 2016, for the resettlement of Syrian refugees," Erdogan said.

It should be recalled that the agreement between Brussels and Ankara to limit the number of refugees and migrants entering the EU, came into force on March 20. According to it, all illegal migrants arriving to Greece via Turkey had to be returned back to the Turkish territory. In return, the EU has pledged to accept Syrian refugees in Turkey on the basis of "1 to 1".

However, on May 11, it became known that the European Parliament has suspended work on the provision of a visa-free regime for Turkish citizens unless Ankara fulfills all the EU requirements.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, in turn, said that the EU's capacity to receive refugees is limited as the European countries are not able to take millions of migrants.

"We do not have an adequate opportunity for millions of refugees," he said, speaking in Luxembourg at the Conference of Speakers of EU Parliaments.

European Commission President pointed the importance of the implementation of the migration agreement between the EU and Turkey, in particular, to resolve the refugee crisis in Greece, where, according to his words, are more than 15 thousand migrants right now.

As for Turkey's membership to the European Union, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that "there is no possibility for Turkey to become an EU member in the near future."

"Turkey will not join the EU before 3,000 with the current pace of negotiations,'' the British Prime Ministe said. 

The EU-Turkish deal seems to have become one more burden for the EU. If at the beginning of the deal the EU was sure Turkey would help it to deal with the migrant crisis, now there is no such convinction. The EU is disappointed - it gave a lot, but did not receive anything, only complaints. What the next steps of the EU be, the time will show.