Turkey is open to a deal on refugees, Donald Tusk says

The European Union has expressed cautious optimism that Turkey will agree to reaccept migrants who do not qualify for asylum in the EU, in a potential breakthrough in the refugee crisis ahead of a key summit in Brussels on Monday.

Following meetings with the Turkish president and prime minister in Turkey, European Council president Donald Tusk said both sides had agreed on the need to reduce the flow of migrants "through large-scale and rapid return from Greece of all migrants not in need of international protection".

"The political will is there but it poses a logistical challenge, in which we have to support Greece," Mr Tusk wrote in a letter to EU leaders ahead of the summit, adding that Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu had confirmed Turkey's readiness to take back all migrants apprehended in Turkish waters.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, also expressed optimism that a deal on readmission would be achieved as part of a "step by step" solution.

“We hope we can reach an agreement with Turkey on taking back economic migrants, the non-Syrian refugees,” he said.

Numbers double

As intense diplomacy continued ahead of the summit, the EU’s statistic agency, eurostat, reported that the number of people applying for asylum in the EU more than doubled last year to 1.26 million.

Most were Syrian, followed by Iraqi and Afghan nationals, with more than a third applying for asylum in Germany.

While any commitment by Turkey to reaccept migrants would be a step forward in the protracted negotiations on solving the crisis, operationally it may take some time, as Turkey would need to implement readmission agreements with other countries in order to return nationals to countries of origin.

With discussion on Monday also expected to focus on the Schengen free-travel area, the European Commission yesterday gave EU member states an end-of-year deadline to phase out border checks introduced in the wake of the refugee crisis.

As part of a new “roadmap” for Schengen unveiled in Brussels yesterday, the commission has ruled that all internal border controls be lifted by December 2016.

It has also called on member states and the European Parliament to progress the controversial EU border and coast guard announced last year by June.

EU coast guard

The new force, which would involve the pooling of coast guard services between member states, should be operational by September and fully functional by November at the latest.

The EU’s border-free travel zone has been thrown into disarray in recent months as countries have reintroduced border controls unilaterally in the face of Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the second World War.

Eight EU countries – including Germany, Denmark, Austria and Belgium – have reintroduced checks at certain border crossings.

Announcing the new measures, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos urged member states to "pull together in the common interests to safeguard one of the union's crowning achievements."

“Schengen and our union is at stake,” he warned, as he called on member states to move from “unilateral decisions on reintroducing border controls towards a co-ordinated approach”.

Mr Avramopoulos said that, while the temporary reintroduction of border checks was permitted under Schengen rules, “they are indeed exceptional and temporary”.

He also stressed the importance of strengthening external borders by ensuring that all people entering the EU are identified and registered correctly.