Bulgaria Has Contingency Plan in Case Ankara Withdraws From Refugee Deal With EU

Bulgaria has a plan regarding what measures to take if Turkey makes a decision to withdraw from a refugee agreement with the European Union, Bulgarian Defense Minister Stefan Yanev said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The relations between Ankara and several EU member states have deteriorated due to the refusal of some EU member states, such as Netherlands, to let Turkish officials to attend rallies in support of proposed constitutional amendments earlier this month. In the context of the refusals, several Turkish officials, including Minister for EU Affairs Omer Celik and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the refugee deal could be broken.

"Bulgaria has a plan of comprehensive actions if the EU-Turkish agreement is broken," Yanev said, as quoted by the Bulgarian Focus news agency.

He added that the statements about Turkey's potential withdrawal from the agreement should be considered in the context of the campaign ahead of the referendum on the constitutional amendments.

In March 2016, Ankara and Brussels reached the agreement in order to tackle the ongoing refugee crisis. Within the framework of the accord, Turkey promised top take back undocumented migrants from the EU member states if the 28-nation bloc receives refugees resettled from the camps in Turkey on a one-for-one basis. In return Brussels pledged to provide financial assistance to Ankara and to accelerate Turkey's EU membership bid.