Monica Frassoni, co-chair of the European Green Party, provides a first comment on the conclusions of yesterday’s EU migration summit.

“The European Council of 7 March ended with the European governments more undecided than ever. We saw an EU being held hostage by the Turkish government, which is becoming increasingly repressive inside its borders and arrogant at the negotiations table.

“And yet, organising the arrival of refugees in Europe could prove a better solution than insisting in rejecting them.

“It is becoming clear that the majority of EU countries’ refusal to manage, both at national and EU level, a common plan for the distribution, welcoming and integration of refugees is costlier than agreeing to deal with it properly, in terms of human suffering, public resources, coherence with our values and political credibility.

“In light of the latest round of cynical and ineffective discussions in Brussels we think that we need to accept the evidence. Only a common plan of redistribution of a larger number of refugees than previously agreed upon and adequate resources to ensure their integration can be the basis for any discussion with Turkey and other countries in the region. 

“Besides that, as already noted by many NGOs and ultimately by Eurojust, we have reasonable doubts that Turkey, at the moment, is able and willing to adequately manage the agreement it proposed to the EU. The EU and some countries’ weak protests against Erdogan's government breaches to democracy are not enough. With the ongoing repression of dissent and the open conflict in the Kurdish South-East, Turkey does not seem to be a safe country even for its own citizens, besides for refugees”.