Cautious optimism ahead of key summit on Europe’s on-going migrant crisis

EU leaders voiced guarded optimism before a summit with Turkey on Monday that Ankara was finally ready to act to curb migrants crossing illegally into Europe. With tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Greece by closing borders, the summit will formally declare closed the Balkan route from Greece to Germany, diplomats said. Leaders will pledge help to Athens cope with the backlog and seek assurances that Turkey, with NATO naval back-up in the Aegean, will stop people smugglers putting migrants to sea.

In Europe we have some principles, some values –one was sharing responsibility, sharing the burden, sharing solidarity. Everyone has to implement our common decisions.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had earlier spent five hours with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels - a meeting that ended at 2.45 a.m. on Monday - to nail down commitments to halt the migrant flow after more than one million people entered Europe last year, most ending up in Germany. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will also be pressing the bloc to deliver on promises made last September to relocate registered asylum seekers from Greece to other EU countries. The leaders are also likely to tell Davutoglu of their concerns about human rights after the Turkish government seized control of a critical newspaper.

I’m moderately optimistic that we can take such steps today.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

EU migrants