Leaders from the EU and Turkey
are meeting at an emergency summit Monday over the worst migrant
crisis affecting Europe since World War II, and will discuss a
possible closure of the northern route through the Balkan
countries.
The EU wants Ankara to block or at least contain the flow
of migrants reaching Greece en route to northern European
countries.
Prior to the summit, European Commission President Jean
Claude Juncker and European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz met
privately with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who said
Turkey is ready to become part of the EU.
"This is the second EU-Turkey summit in three months,"
Davutoglu said.
"This shows how essential Turkey is to the EU and the EU to
Turkey," he said, adding that he hoped the summit would be a
success and a "turning point" in EU-Turkish relations.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was focusing on
three objectives: improving the situation of migrants in their
home countries, reducing the number of migrants in all European
countries, and protecting external EU borders to safeguard the
Schengen Area.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that agreements
from the past two EU migrant summits weren't put into action by
all Member States, and so any agreements coming out of this
summit must be put into action by all.
"One of the founding principles of Europe is shared
responsibility, duty and solidarity," Tsipras said.
French President Francois Hollande expressed cautious
reservation regarding collaboration with Turkey.
"Cooperating with Turkey doesn't mean we accept everything;
we have to be vigilant, in particular on some measures taken
against the press - the press must be free," Hollande said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron strongly reiterated
that Britain will not join any common migrant asylum process in
Europe.
"We have an absolutely rock-solid opt-out from these
things," Cameron said.
"We will have our own asylum approach, our own way of doing
things, keeping our borders," he said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
