Debate on the&nbsp;Legal aspects, democratic control and implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement, during the EP plenary session (27-28 April 2016) in Brussels. Statements by&nbsp;Klaas DIJKHOFF, Dutch Minister for Migration, 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

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

EU - Türkiye (T)

TIMMERMANS, Frans (NL, EC)

Legal aspects, democratic control and implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement: extracts from the Council and Commission statements

SOUNDBITE (English), Klaas DIJKHOFF, Dutch Minister for Migration , The Turkey agreement from March 18 is a very ambitious one, it brings us to all new aspects, all new forms of solutions, that is unprecedented and needs to be worked out in the fields while we are living under new agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Klaas DIJKHOFF, Dutch Minister for Migration , We are also combining it with getting more of a grip on who is coming to the European Member states for protection and who is offered protection in the region and in Turkey; we are coming to a situation in which we can assist Greece better in dealing with the influx.

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, Greece is making an incredible effort, an incredible effort and I really want to commend the cooperation we have as Commission with the Greek authorities to deal with this issue. And with all the problems we have this cooperation I think is with a quality we have never seen before and also the cooperation between Greece and Turkey is something to build on in other areas.

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, Many children have not gone to school for 2 or 3 years and just imagine the problems you create for families if the children can't go to school. And we all know if you give them a decent education once there is peace in Syria they can go back and build up Syria again, so my primer objective is to make sure that all Syrian children can get a decent education.

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 need to make sure that Member States increase their efforts to take in Syrian refugees in legal ways into the European Union that is the other side of the coin if we are to have a sustainable deal with Turkey.