EU invites Turkey to the summit table

Leaders agree to discuss €3 billion deal for Ankara’s help in stemming refugee flow.

VALLETTA, Malta — EU leaders agreed Thursday to invite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a special summit aimed at sealing a €3 billion deal for Ankara’s help in stemming the flow of refugees from the Middle East to Europe.

European Council President Donald Tusk said the summit with Turkey would be held “as soon as possible,” most likely before the end of the year, to discuss further cooperation on migration.

“We feel confident that a mutually beneficial relationship can be established to help us confront the present crisis,” Tusk said. “We all agreed that the EU side will do what it takes to achieve this, while expecting the Turkish side to play its part.”

Under a European Commission proposal presented Thursday to EU leaders at a hastily arranged, “informal” summit in Malta, EU countries would provide €2.5 billion along with €500 million from the European Commission during 2015 and 2016.

Tusk said the Turkey plan was a major focus of the afternoon meeting, which was held after another summit of European and African heads of state and government on the migration crisis.

The proposal was presented to EU leaders by the Commission vice president, Frans Timmermans, as part of a joint action plan with Turkey, originally unveiled last month but still under discussion with Turkish authorities.

Timmermans arrived in Malta on Thursday morning from Turkey, where he held talks on the arrangement with the Turkish government. Cooperation with Ankara is considered vital to the migration issue because refugees and migrants cross the border from Turkey to Greece and from there move north through the Western Balkan route to possibly reach Germany or Sweden.

Turkey has said it would help in the effort to control the refugee flow, but its demand for money had proven controversial with several EU countries. An EU official said that on Thursday four of the largest EU countries had agreed to contribute money to the plan, though no official decision was taken since this was an informal summit.

According to a European Commission document outlining the proposed national contributions, Germany would contribute more than €500 million, the U.K. more than €400 million and France more than €380 million.

“The positive news is that all EU states agreed on fighting the root causes of the refugee flow and protecting the external borders better,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a press conference after the meeting. “There was a good consensus, independent from how much the states are affected by this crisis.”

Turkey also requested the unusual EU-Turkey summit, with Erdoğan joining the bloc’s 28 leaders in Brussels for the meeting, to be held at the end of November or early December.

“We want an EU-Turkey summit as soon as possible,” Merkel said. “We have a common responsibility.”

An EU official said the date for the summit would be decided only after a new government is formed in Ankara. Earlier this month Erdoğan’s AKP party won elections to regain a parliamentary majority after months of political uncertainty.

“Turkey is waiting for a political signal from Europe to move the talks forward,” an EU official said. “For them the meeting is the most important point, more than money.”

Yet officials worry that even if agreed, the €3 billion may not be enough.

“The Turks say that the summit is important for them but it is not the most important element,” said a diplomatic source close to the talks. “And they also say the €3 billion figure is not a one-off.”

The meeting will also be an opportunity to move talks forward on Turkey’s bid to join the EU, which has been stuck for several years over concerns over Erdogan’s increasingly autocratic rule. The European Commission this week published a progress report on that bid, saying Turkey still had a lot of work to do in terms of improving the rule of law and fundamental rights if it wants to join the EU.

But at a summit in September, EU leaders agreed to revisit the accession talks with Ankara if progress were made in the refugee effort. The updated deal presented by Timmermans to EU leaders reaffirmed that the EU will also pursue talks on the enlargement process, as well as on visa liberalization for Turks hoping to travel to Europe.

According to a European Commission document, priorities for how the €3 billion in EU money will be spent “should be decided jointly with the Turkish authorities,” with “priority will be given to actions providing immediate humanitarian support” for the 2.2 million Syrian refugees who live in Turkey.

In exchange Ankara will do more to intercept smugglers, will open the labor market to Syrian refugees and education for their children and will also increase readmission of illegal migrants.

Hans von der Burchard contributed to this article.