European Union leaders have heard the recent conciliatory tone from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who insists that the bloc should boost its financial support to Ankara.
On Thursday, the EU summit offered new incentives to Turkey to improve cooperation on migration and trade. Despite the lingering concerns about its energy ambitions in the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey’s efforts on keeping the migrant situation under control are really titanic and need to be supported.
The European Union is ready to engage with Turkey in a phased, proportionate and reversible manner to enhance cooperation in a number of areas of common interest, the EU leaders agreed, Reuters reported.
EU to help Turkey in the frame of 2015 migrant deal
So far, the EU’s assistance includes “a mandate for the modernization” of customs arrangements. Additionally, the future launch of “high-level dialogues” on issues like the COVID, climate change, counter-terrorism and regional issues. The “customs union” deal between the EU and Turkey removed duties on most Turkish goods and products entering the 27-nation bloc but hasn’t worked as well as the Ankara would like.
Moreover, that agreement massively reduced migrant arrivals into the Greek islands, compared to 2015. Under the deal, the EU offered Ankara 6 billion euros to help Syrian refugees and other incentives to prevent people from leaving Turkey to go to Europe.
