Turkish PM Hopes EU, Ankara to Achieve Common Goal of Helping Refugees

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday expressed hope that the European Union and Turkey would manage to reach the common goals of helping refugees fleeing war-torn countries and strengthening EU-Ankara relations.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A two-day European Council summit on migration opened in Brussels on Thursday. EU leaders are expected to reach an agreement on an EU-Turkey action plan that envisions a one-for-one exchange of undocumented migrants for approved refugees later on Friday.

“The EU and Turkey, we have the same goal, the same objective to help Syrian refugees and also to have a new future in our continent…. I hope we will achieve our goal to help all the refugees as well as to deepen the Turkish-EU relationship,” Davutoglu told reporters prior to the start of the Council’s Friday meeting.

Europe is struggling with an unprecedented migrant crisis as hundreds of thousands refugees flee their war-torn home countries in the Middle East and North Africa in search of asylum.

Under the EU-Turkey deal, agreed in principal earlier in March, the European Union is expected to accelerate Turkey's EU accession process and introduce a visa-free regime between Turkey and Europe, as well as granting a total of 3 billion euros (over $3.3 billion) to Turkey to help it provide for refugees on its soil. Ankara has requested an additional 3 billion euros in funding through 2018.