Debate on the Outcome of the EU-Turkey summit, during the EP plenary session in Brussels. Statements by Nicolas SCHMIT, on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency, Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&D, IT), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK) and Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE)

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

SCHMIT, Nicolas (LU, EC)

debate

plenary session

EU - Türkiye (T)

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

TIMMERMANS, Frans (NL, EC)

PITTELLA, Gianni (S&D, IT)

KAMALL, Syed (ECR, UK)

Outcome of the EU-Turkey summit: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (French), Nicolas SCHMIT, on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency , All the elements agreed last Sunday should be implemented together and should also be carefully assessed. The same is true as regards the accession process: all the condition, all of them, applicable to candidates, to all candidate countries, are obviously applicable to Turkey as well.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, We hope that the meeting created a new partnership, both on refugee related matters and beyond. Just to name one example: the recent and atrocious attacks in Paris and Ankara, including a bomb again last night, have also shown how Europe and Turkey are both confronted with the same security threats and reinforce our resolve to step up counter-terrorist cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Progress needs to be made on the management of borders, asylum and migration, quality of travel documents and the respect of minority's rights. Moreover the Visa liberalisation process can only go hand in hand with substantial progress on the EU-Turkey readmission agreement, notably on the obligation to take back third country nationals. The date for full implementation of the re-admission agreement has been considerably brought forward and is now set for June 2016.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, This is not money for Turkey, but money to provide help to refugees in Turkey. This is money to provide for medical care for Syrians, for schooling and for better living conditions for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Let's be frank because the problem is so big; an EU member state, Greece, cannot implement Schengen standards at its external borders, so all the border guards that we are using to build up internal security within the EU, between Bavaria and Austria, between Sweden and Denmark, between France and Germany... If all of those border troops and police would be used there, to secure the Greek-Turkish border, I think we would be doing a much better job that what we are doing at the moment in the EU.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT), Stretching out the hand to Turkey it doesn't mean to give Turkey a blank check and it definitely doesn't' mean that we are underestimating the fact that it is a slippery slope. I am worried about what's happening with the fundamental rights in Turkey; I am thinking about the attacks against minorities specially the Kurds, none of this is acceptable; even the concentration of powers in the hands of one individual harms democracy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), Let us not pretend that EU-membership is on the horizon, there are far too many people in the EU who will never accept Turkey for reasons including pure prejudice against Turks and their faith, concerned over human right, concerned over freedom of movement, concerns over the numbers of votes they would have in Council and Parliament, concerns over EU borders being extended to Iran Iraq and Syria. So let us be clear to Turks about what the relationship is; and let us also be clear to our voters what EU countries get in return for signing a Visa-free agreement and what we get in return for the 3 billion euros that Turkey is demanding.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), In the written conclusions nothing was said about human rights in Turkey, freedom of press in Turkey, state of democracy in Turkey, that's the failure of this summit in my opinion.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), The external border of Greece is not a Greek border, is a European border, is also a German border, a Belgian border, a French border and that's the key and that is what you have to achieve with or without Mr Tsipras.