Turkey Blackmailing EU by Asking for Extra Funds in Migrant Deal - Le Pen

The Leader of the French National Front (FN) party Marine Le Pen has described as blackmail Turkey's request for the European Union to provide it with an extra 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to deal with the refugee crisis.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On March 7, an EU-Turkey summit devoted to refugees resulted in Ankara's demand for an additional 3 billion euros from the European Union to deal with migrants on top of the bloc's previous pledge of 3 billion euros.

"It is blackmail! We have become so weak due to removing of our [EU] borders that we have given in to Turkey's blackmail," Le Pen told the broadcaster RTL on Thursday, adding that the Turkish leadership has weakened the European Union to the extent that it can now display such behavior in relation to European countries.

In exchange for the additional funding, Turkey has proposed a set of measures to stem the refugee influx, including a promise to take back any undocumented migrants who enter the European Union through Turkey and swap them on a one-for-one basis for legal Syrian refugees who are seeking to enter the bloc.

The final agreement between the European Union and Turkey is expected to be announced at the EU-Turkey summit taking place on March 17-18 in Brussels.

Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. The majority of migrants, especially from Iraq and Syria, arrive in Europe through Turkey.