EU and Türkiye reach a €3 billion agreement: Everyone gets a piece of the pie.

(Baonghean) - After more than a month of negotiations, the European Union (EU) and Türkiye have reached an agreement on a 3 billion euro aid package aimed at making the country a "front line" to help Europe deal with the influx of Syrian migrants. Although still controversial, this agreement can be considered to meet the requirements of both sides.

Everyone gets a share.

According to an agreement reached by European Union (EU) and Turkish leaders last weekend in Brussels, Belgium, Türkiye will become a host country for Syrian refugees. The two sides also decided to launch a joint action plan to limit the flow of refugees into Europe, as well as restart negotiations on Türkiye's accession to the EU, which had been stalled for some time.

European Council President Donald Tusk and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at a press conference following the summit.

With this budget allocation, European Council President Donald Tusk believes the EU will better support the 2.2 million Syrian refugees in Türkiye in settling down, thereby persuading them to stay in the country instead of trying to enter the EU. President Tusk also affirmed that the EU does not expect any country to guard its borders without the EU itself doing so, implying a joint effort by the bloc to address this dire migration crisis.

In return, Türkiye will also benefit considerably. Besides receiving benefits from EU support packages, Chapter 17 of Turkey's EU accession negotiations, concerning economic and monetary policy, will be restarted. Furthermore, the EU will ease visa requirements for Turkish citizens entering member states and is expected to abolish visas for Turkish citizens from October 2016.

However, the process of disbursing this enormous sum of money is not easy. Ankara itself will not receive the funds directly; instead, the EU will disburse them to organizations working for refugees in Turkey. The money will be disbursed in stages, based on Turkey's goodwill and actions. Stage 1 will consist of 400-500 million euros. An electronic monitoring system will be installed to check whether Turkey is complying with its commitments.

The heads of state of Austria, Türkiye, and Germany entered the summit.

Clearly, everyone benefits from this calculated deal. Türkiye – a country situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, a link between Europe and the Middle East – is clearly very aware of its extremely important geopolitical position as a transit point for migrants to Europe in this volatile situation.

Aware of Europe's desperate need for a solution to the migration crisis, Türkiye has been making strong demands on the EU during negotiations for the aforementioned agreement. Ankara's negotiating conditions have become increasingly weighty following the terrorist attacks by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in Paris on November 13th – an event that raised concerns about terrorists potentially infiltrating the migrant flow to enter Europe.

This further urges the EU to quickly find a solution to prevent the influx of migrants, which is projected to reach 1.5 million this year alone. These measures include sea patrols and border controls to prevent migrants from crossing the sea from Turkey to Greece and then entering European gateways in the Western Balkans. Furthermore, given its troubled relations with Middle Eastern neighbors and Russia, Türkiye also seeks closer ties with Europe.

It was for this reason that in mid-November, the EU had to hold a summit with African countries to discuss the issue of migration. At this meeting, the EU also proposed providing 3.6 billion euros in aid to persuade African leaders to accept back migrants who have migrated for economic reasons.

It's not time to go any further yet.

Despite accepting the terms Ankara offered in exchange for assistance in resolving the migration crisis, few believed the two sides had found common ground on many important bilateral issues. Even European Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the EU-Turkey summit, acknowledged this, emphasizing that the meeting was primarily aimed at addressing the migration issue rather than improving EU-Turkey relations.

This statement alludes to the strained relationship between Türkiye and Europe in recent years, as President Tayyip Erdogan has relentlessly consolidated power and faced criticism for suppressing political opponents, the media, and the Kurdish minority community. Without the pressure of the migrant crisis, it would certainly not have been easy for the EU to make such significant concessions to Türkiye. The decision itself has already caused divisions within the EU for the past month.

The discussion about Türkiye's accession to the EU will likely also be affected by these disagreements. In fact, many EU members oppose Türkiye's admission, especially those in Eastern and Northern Europe. The strongest obstacle Turkey will face is Cyprus's veto of any Turkish intention to join the EU.

This island nation has a long-standing and extremely tense political and historical relationship with Türkiye, due to the fact that parts of its territory are still occupied by Turkish military forces and that a pro-Turkish separatist government exists on the island of Cyprus.

Germany, the EU member with the closest ties to Ankara, is also torn in this relationship. Despite Chancellor Angela Merkel's declared support for reopening Türkiye's EU accession application, numerous political parties have voiced their opposition.

Furthermore, what worries the EU about Türkiye is the vast religious differences, with the foundation of EU countries being Christianity while Türkiye is increasingly leaning towards Islam. Therefore, even if Europe could make concessions to Turkey to ensure a steady influx of refugees, whether or not to admit Turkey remains unclear.

Thanh Son