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The EU and Turkey have agreed on a new package of measures to address the on-going migrant crisis. Open Europe’s Vincenzo Scarpetta takes a look at the key points of the EU-Turkey deal and the implications for the UK.
18 March 2016
At today’s meeting of EU leaders, the EU and Turkey have agreed on a new set of measures to tackle the on-going migrant crisis. These are the key points of the deal:
Unsurprisingly, the agreement comes with a number of sweeteners for Turkey:
Needless to say, implementing the agreement will be far from easy. My colleague Nina Schick had a thorough look at the main legal and political issues that may arise – so I won’t rehash all of that.
It is, however, important to clarify a few points with regard to where the EU-Turkey deal leaves the UK – as it is easy to see the agreement being brought into the broader EU referendum debate.
EU/Turkey deal is the worst of all possible worlds. Giving visa-free access to Turkey will mean increased numbers of people coming to Europe — Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 18, 2016
EU/Turkey deal is the worst of all possible worlds. Giving visa-free access to Turkey will mean increased numbers of people coming to Europe
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 18, 2016
Fast-tracking EU membership for an unstable Turkey is total and complete madness. — Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 18, 2016
Fast-tracking EU membership for an unstable Turkey is total and complete madness.
First, the UK is not a member of the passport-free Schengen area. This means the British government will not need to grant visa-free travel to Turkish citizens. Second, visa liberalisation is not the same as the freedom to live and work in the EU. What we are talking about is “short stays of 90 days within any 180-day period for business, touristic or family purposes.”
Third, participation in the resettlement of Syrians from Turkey is voluntary for all EU member states – meaning that the agreement does not imply Britain taking in more refugees. And even if participation had been mandatory, the UK would have been able to use its opt-out from EU asylum policy anyway. Nonetheless, the UK is already contributing to the €3 billion refugee facility for Turkey – and would therefore have to increase its contribution accordingly if the EU decided to mobilise the additional €3 billion by the end of 2018.
Fourth, Turkey becoming a fully-fledged member of the EU remains a very distant prospect – as pretty much everyone, from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, has been repeating over the past few days. Furthermore, the UK has a veto on the accession of new countries to the EU – and even on the opening of each individual ‘chapter’ as part of EU membership negotiations.
For all these reasons, it is not obvious how being out of the EU would make a substantial difference from the UK’s perspective.
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