On Monday, the Turkey-EU summit on migration took place in Brussels. Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants that had arrived to the European Union and send in their place legal Syrian refugees to the bloc on one-for-one basis in exchange for the acceleration of visa liberalization negotiations and EU accession talks.
"There is already a bilateral agreement between Greece and Turkey providing for the readmission of irregular migrants, but Turkey is violating it continuously, practically refusing almost any readmission. We shall see if things can be different now that the Turkish promises will be given to EU as a whole," Kostas Chrysogonos said.
Brussels and Ankara drafted the EU-Turkey action plan in November 2015, under which EU member states pledged to pay Turkey 3 billion euros over the next two years and fast-track Ankara’s EU accession talks in exchange for efforts to limit migrant arrivals.
A final agreement between the EU and Turkey is expected by the next summit on March 17-18.
