THE European Union and Turkey have reached a landmark deal to ease the migrant crisis and give Ankara concessions on better EU relations, the Czech prime minister has announced.
Near the end of a two-day summit on Friday, Bohuslav Sobotka tweeted: "The deal with Turkey approved. All illegal migrants who reach Greece from Turkey starting March 20 will be returned."
With the EU's 28 leaders on board, the document still needed to be officially signed off with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had negotiated the final wording on the agreement since early Friday.
Mr Davutoglu said Ankara's prime concern was the fate of almost three million Syrian refugees on its territory.
At the same time, he was looking for unprecedented concessions to bring the EU's eastern neighbour closer to the bloc.
For the EU, the deal would bring some closure to months of bitter infighting over how to deal with the migrant crisis.
It would essentially see Europe outsource its refugee emergency to Turkey.
"For Turkey, the refugee issue is not an issue of bargaining, but values," Mr Davutoglu told reporters earlier in the day, staking out the same moral ground that the EU has claimed throughout the crisis.
Mr Davutoglu said he hoped that beyond helping the refugees, the deal would "deepen EU-Turkey relations" with the approval of unprecedented access to Europe for Turkish nationals and the speeding-up of
bogged-down EU membership talks.
With more than one million migrants having arrived in Europe in a year, EU leaders were desperate to clinch a deal with Turkey and heal deep rifts within the 28-member bloc while relieving the pressure on Greece, which has borne the brunt of arrivals.
