A spokesman for the ruling AK Party meanwhile said there was no conclusive agreement yet on a possible 3 billion euro ($3.4 billion) EU aid offer, which European leaders said overnight they had agreed with Erdogan under a migration “action plan,” and that negotiations were continuing.
Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek also said on Friday Turkey would welcome the possible $3.4 bln in aid but said he could not confirm whether the funds would actually be disbursed.
Simsek also said Turkey’s security and defence spending would rise to 55 billion lira next year from 47.4 billion in 2015. Turkey is battling both the spillover from Syria’s civil war and a Kurdish insurgency in its ownsoutheast.
- Erdogan made clear Turkey would not roll over easily on the issue, arguing that his nation’s proximity to Syria and its key role in handling the refugee crisis had strengthened its case for EU membership.
“The West and Europe’s security and stability is contingent on our security and stability. They have accepted this now. In the talks I held in Brussels last week they accepted all this. It can't happen without Turkey,” Erdogan told a conference in Istanbul on gender equality.
“So if it can’t happen without Turkey, why don’t you take Turkey into the EU? The problem is clear but they are not open. They are not clear. They say ‘We made a mistake on NATO, let’s not make the same mistake on the EU’. That is the problem,” he said...
alarabiya.net by Reuters
16/10/15
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Turkey awaits political demands before implementation of migration deal with EU ...
ReplyDeleteTurkey and European Union have agreed to a “draft” agreement on migrants which will be implemented only after Ankara’s political demands are met by Brussels, Turkish officials said.
Turkey’s conditions, which the EU has agreed to in principle, include the opening of negotiation chapters, visa liberalization, the payment of 3 billion euros in financial support by the EU for migrants in Turkey and the invitation of Turkish leaders to EU summits, diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News.
The deal comes ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Istanbul for talks with Turkish leaders on Oct. 18.
Turkey and EU has agreed on a “draft agreement” on a migrant action plan and the union will provide a 3 billion-euro financial package for an initial year, Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu told reporters on Oct. 16.
The minister identified the draft agreement as an “ad referendum” which is for further consideration by one having the authority to make a final decision.
Sinirlioğlu slammed the EU’s earlier proposal to give 500 million euros from pre-accession funds out of the budget allocated for Turkey, saying Ankara rejected the offer. The issue is not aid to Turkey but help Syrians, he said.
“We have spent $8 billion [on refugees], and our gross national product is around $800 billion. Their [GNP] is $18 trillion. Three billion euro versus $18 trillion is funny, but it is much better than the 500 million that they had delivered.”..............http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-awaits-political-demands-before-implementation-of-migration-deal-with-eu-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=89994&NewsCatID=510
17/10/15