The EU on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for Turks and unveiled an overhaul of its asylum system under which member states that refuse to take a quota of refugees will be fined
The EU on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for Turks and unveiled an overhaul of its asylum system under which member states that refuse to take a quota of refugees will be fined.
In its latest bid to tackle the biggest migration crisis since World War II, the European Commission proposed making countries pay a “solidarity contribution” of $290,000 per refugee they decline to take.
Turkey has threatened to tear up a March agreement to take back migrants from Europe if the EU fails to keep its promise to allow Turkish citizens to travel without visas to the passport-free Schengen area by the end of June. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said visa-free travel could herald a “new page” in Ankara’s relations with the bloc.
European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said the EU’s executive arm would recommend that, if Ankara meets the remaining criter-ia, the 28 member states and the European Parliam-ent should approve the Turkish visa plan.
“There is no free ride here, and we are clear about what remains to be done,” Mr Timmermans said in response to criticism from several EU states that the deal is too soft on Turkey’s rights record. Turkey must complete five more benchmarks by the end of June to complete the EU’s list of 72 — which include biometric passports and human rights issues — despite making “impressive progress” in recent weeks, Mr Timmermans added.
Also on Wednesday, the commission unveiled its long-awaited proposal for replacing its outdated asylum system with a mechanism for relocating refuge-es in a crisis.
The so-called Dublin rules currently in force have been criticised as obsolete and unfair to countries like Greece, where most of the migrants entered the bloc in 2015. Under the rules, migrants seeking asylum must lodge their applicat-ion in the country where th-ey first arrived, and should be returned there if they try to move elsewhere in the bloc.
Mr Timmermans said co-untries that show they temporarily cannot take any asylum seekers under the mechanism should show “financial solidarity” with states that do take in refugees.
Hungary and Poland on Wednesday slammed the EU plan to fine member states that refuse to accept their quota of refugees, with Budapest calling it “blackmail” and Warsaw saying it sounded like an April Fool’s joke.
“It’s blackmail, it's unacceptable and a non-European type of proposal from the commission,” Hungary’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said. “The quota concept is a dead-end street and I would like to ask the commission not to run into this dead-end street,” Mr Szijjarto added.
