The EU-Turkey Dirty Deal On Migrants - Can Europe Redeem Itself - Brookings Institution

The EU-Turkey dirty deal on migrants: Can Europe redeem itself?
| Brookings Institution
4/12/16, 01:49
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Matteo Garavoglia | March 14, 2016 10:20am
The EU-Turkey dirty deal on migrants: Can Europe

redeem itself?
The one in-one out deal being worked out between the EU and Turkey is testament to the political vacuum
we live in. By subcontracting its border management to Ankaras increasingly authoritarian regime, the
European Union is insulting its own values. In doing so, it violates the rights of asylum seekers under
international law by undermining the principle of non-refoulement, ignores its duty to condemn
Turkeys increasingly inexcusable human rights record, and gives Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan
unprecedented leverage over EU policymaking.
The EUs so-called leaders know all this. They are even ashamed of it. And yet they have no choice. For all
of them, the absolute priority is to stop and then begin regulating the migrant flow. This is crucial to save the
Schengen Treaty, to keep right-wing populism in check, to salvage German Chancellor Angela Merkels
increasingly untenable political position, to stop the Balkans from descending into utter chaos, and, surreally,
to rescue David Cameron from driving the United Kingdom out of the EU.
The ticking clock
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/03/14-eu-turkey-migrant-deal-garavoglia
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The EU-Turkey dirty deal on migrants: Can Europe redeem itself? | Brookings Institution
4/12/16, 01:49
These developments are bound to upset anybody already worried by Turkeys slide into illiberal democracy.
Yet, realpolitik coupled with short-sighted policymaking on the European side leave no room for better
alternatives. The question is therefore: What can Europe do with the time it buys for itself? Answer: It can
buy itself one year to put in place two sets of policies.
One year. Hopefully this is how long the EU will need this dirty deal (for which there may be a silver lining, as
my colleague Kemal Kirici argues). Long enough to get through the summer and the inevitable increase in
the number of migrants that will attempt to reach the EU. Long enough for the newly conceived European
Unions Border and Coast Guard to become fully operational. And long enough to establish at least the very
basics of a fundamentally reformed pan-European asylum and refugee framework as implicitly suggested in
the European Agenda on Migration.
Proposals submitted by the European Commission aim at establishing an agency that would de facto
replace the understaffed, underfunded, and ill-equipped Frontex. The new European Border and Coast
Guard (EBCG) would have its own budget, the capacity to acquire its own equipment, a significant staff, and
robust rules of engagement. While still falling short of a fully-fledged pan-European border agency, the
EBCG could be operational by the end of the year and help Greek authorities bring order to its chaotic
borders.
The set up of a European Border and Coast Guard is the centerpiece of the EUs attempt to stem the
migrant flow. Together with eventual success in bringing the Syrian conflict to an end, it should be enough to
secure the EUs borders. Having done that, Brussels should fundamentally revise the terms of the deal as
well as the broader relationship with Ankara. Once less in need of a benevolent Turkey to manage its
borders, the Europeans should become uncompromising on human rights and media freedom.
Once less in need of a benevolent Turkey to manage its borders, the Europeans
should become uncompromising on human rights and media freedom.
More complicated might be to work out the other side of the same coin: a truly pan-European asylum and
refugee framework. This will be harder to achieve because of radically different political sensitivities across
Europe. The approaches of Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn to refugees are unlikely to be
easily reconciled. In private conversations, policymakers across Europe are quick to acknowledge that a
new asylum policy will be in place many months after a revamped border policy, if at all.
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The EU-Turkey dirty deal on migrants: Can Europe redeem itself? | Brookings Institution
4/12/16, 01:49
A lot can be achieved in one year. But securing borders and establishing a truly European refugee
framework should ideally go in sync. Asylum seekers need better EU border management to be in place for
national governments to be able to establish a pan-European asylum and refugee framework. However, the
danger is that, as the pressure on the European Unions borders abates, so will the incentives for the EU to
radically rethink its refugee policy. Asylum seekers therefore need efforts to secure Europes borders to fall
short of what is needed. Luckily for them, Europes so-called leaders are unlikely to disappoint them.
Matteo Garavoglia
Visiting Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe
A dual German and Italian citizen, Matteo Garavoglia is the Italy Program Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center on the United
States and Europe. His research focuses on the European Unions common foreign and security policy. In particular, he is interested
in humanitarian, development, democratization, election observation, human rights, migration and refugees policies. Additionally, he
covers issues pertaining to Italian politics and U.S.-Italy relations. He is also research associate at the University of Oxford's Centre
for International Studies and serves as adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies.
More Posts from Matteo > | View Expert Page >
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The EU-Turkey dirty deal on migrants: Can Europe redeem itself?

Matteo Garavoglia | March 14, 2016 10:20am

The EU-Turkey dirty deal on migrants: Can Europe

The ticking clock

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