EU-Turkey relations

According to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, Turkey sets the "best example" in how it hosts the refugees who have been fleeing the five-year-long civil war in Syria.

He said that during a visit to refugee camps in the southern border province of Gaziantep along with other ranking EU officials and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on April 23. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans will pay a visit on April 23 to the southern province of Gaziantep, where they aim to take stock of the implementation of the March 18 EU-Turkey deal and discuss the next steps.

The European Union officially announced on April 20 that if Turkey fulfilled all necessary measures in the next two weeks, the commission would start procedures on May 4 to put Turkey on the EU's visa-free travel list. "I am pleased to say that progress has been made," EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said during a press conference.

European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker made it clear that Turkey would have to fulfil all the necessary requirements deriving from the EU-Turkey refugee agreement before Europe would lift all the restrictions on visas for Tuksih citizens traveling to the continent. He stressed there would be no concessions for Turkey on the issue.

Turkey's minister for European Union affairs and its chief negotiator with the bloc, Volkan Bozk?r, said if the EU does not grant Turkish citizens visa-free travel, Turkey could stop accepting migrants sent from Greece.

The European Parliament sent a stern warning to EU membership candidate Turkey on April 14, accusing its government of "backsliding" on democracy and the rule of law.
 

Turkey's foreign and EU ministers have met with ministers from across Europe in Istanbul to discuss the handling of the migrant crisis ahead of an EU ministers meeting in the Netherlands on April 11-12.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu and EU Minister Volkan Bozk?r hosted ministers from the Netherlands, which holds the EU presidency, France, Slovakia and Portugal on April 9.

A second group of migrants is being sent back from the Greek islands to Turkey after a five-day pause, under the agreement signed between EU and Turkey.

Today 150 immigrants will be sent back, while the initial list with the persons to be deported is getting smaller, since asylum applications recorded a significant increase.

Turkey will not go through with an agreement to take back refugees if the European Union does not fulfill its pledges, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, as Reuters reports.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will next week inaugurate a new centre for Syrian refugees in the southeastern Turkish city of Kilis built with EU funds, Turkey's prime minister said on April 5.