http://www.businessinsider.in/EU-leaders-will-announce-a-change-that-could-dramatically-affect-the-refugee-crisis/articleshow/51291022.cms
EU leaders will announce a change that could dramatically affect the refugee crisis
by Barbara Tasch MAR 7, 2016, 03.31 PM
The Balkan route, used by hundreds of thousands of refugees to reach northern European countries after they reach Greece, will be closed.
European Union leaders are set to announce the move on Monday POLITICO reports.
According to POLITICO, EU ambassadors discussed the plan on Sunday afternoon and in a document seen by journalists agreed that “Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route are coming to an end; this route is now closed."
The statement is set to be approved by EU leaders on Monday at a summit with Turkish officials in Brussels.
Last week, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, met with leaders from countries all along the Balkan route and appealed to economic migrants not to come to Europe, as he warned that "No European country will be a transit country."
Europe is still scrambling to present a unified front and find a pan-European solution to the refugee crisis.
According to POLITICO, the EU leaders' aim is to return to a normal situation within the Schengen area by December. Over the last week, EU officials had once again reiterated that the priority should be to secure the external border of the bloc in order for internal borders to remain open.
As the European Union tries to tackle the biggest migrant crisis it has been faced with since World War Two, it also seeks Turkey's help to stem the flow of refugees and is pressuring Ankara to hold up its part of a €3 billion (£2.3 billion) deal struck a few months ago. Turkey has already agreed to take back Syrians rescued at sea.
According to data from the UNHCR, more than 138,000 migrants have already reached European shores this year, and 410 people have died while attempting the crossing of the Aegean Sea.
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http://www.politico.eu/article/balkan-route-closed-eu-to-declare/
Balkan route closed, EU to declare
Germany sets aside concerns about Turkish human rights to secure a deal on migration with Ankara.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
The Balkan route taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe is going to be closed, EU leaders will declare Monday at their summit with Turkey in Brussels, diplomats and officials said over the weekend.
Their statement — to be approved by leaders on Monday — was discussed by EU ambassadors on Sunday afternoon. “Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route are coming to an end; this route is now closed,” according to a copy of the document obtained by POLITICO.
The meeting did not last long and ambassadors also endorsed the aim to “take forward, as a matter of priority all the elements of the Commission roadmap,” according to a diplomatic source, who added that the draft statement was not controversial. The migration roadmap, which was put out on Friday, envisages a series of steps for the return to normality in the Schengen area by December, dismantling the internal border controls reintroduced by some member states.
The new commitment to close the Western Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees traveling from Greece to Northern Europe would end the “wave-through policy” that allowed migrants to cross borders with minimal controls.
The final statement stresses the need to be aware of other routes that migrants might take if the road running through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia is shut down. There are fears, especially in Rome, that migrants will try to travel north through Albania and across the Aegean Sea to Italy.
EU unease about Turkey
An agreement at the summit still faces political hurdles, in particular unease within the EU over a domestic crackdown in Turkey. Hours after European Council President Donald Tusk left Ankara last week, Turkish authorities on Friday seized Zaman, the country’s largest opposition newspaper.
The seizure prompted a mild censure by Brussels and silence in Berlin, which is eagerly seeking to get Turkey’s help to slow the flow of migrants into Europe. “We should not the referee the subject of human rights for the entire planet,” Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière told the Passauer Neue Presse on Saturday.
But there’s enough discomfort with Turkey’s behavior to cause trouble on Monday. “I am afraid we could have an intense discussion on that since some are complaining that the EU has been too soft with Ankara,” said a diplomat.
The summit is intended to address the refugee crisis by making it clear that migrants will be swiftly returned to Turkey and that last year’s “open-door” policy, that made it possible for more than a million people to make their way to Germany, is over.
To help ease the humanitarian strain on Greece, where thousands of migrants are now stuck after borders were closed further to the north, the EU is counting on Turkey’s help. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, in his meeting in Ankara with Tusk on Thursday, agreed to step up the return of illegal migrants from Greece as part of a bilateral readmission program with Athens, another official said.
Received on Mon Mar 07 2016 - 14:27:41 EST