EU Ambassador Christian Berger: We have a strong interest that Turkey is overcoming its economic problems, because we see Turkey as our economic partner
The EU-Turkey statement of March 2016 has become one of the main pillars of the EU’s migration strategy, essentially limiting the flow of migrants to the EU. The statement is accepted as a turning point in Europe’s crisis over refugees. On the third anniversary of its signing, we talked with Ambassador Christian Berger, the head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, the agreement’s impact on refugees and on Europe, Turkey-EU relations, EU relations with the Middle East including Israel and the rise of antisemitism in Europe. How would you define the EU-Turkey deal of 2016 in its third anniversary? As a success? Does the outcome meet the expectations? The Turkey-EU statement of March 2016 is trying to address two issues; to reduce the number of people -including illegal migrants- crossing to the islands, and also reduce the number of people dying in the sea. The numbers have dropped significantly. Both as the EU and Turkey, we believe that the statement is achieving its purpose. The...