Germany seen in favor of fresh migration pact with Turkey

Berlin is in favor of extending the 2016 migration deal between the European Union and Turkey, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert was quoted by Greece’s state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency as saying on Monday.

Seibert was responding to a report on Sunday in Germany’s Handelsblatt, indicating that Berlin is in talks with Ankara over the terms of a new migration pact, which Turkey wants to include an expanded customs union with the EU and more freedom on the allocation of funding from Brussels earmarked for refugees.

“The agreement benefits both sides, the member-states of the EU and Turkey,” the ANA-MPA quoted Seibert as saying. 

“The main idea is to guarantee the proper protection for refugees in Turkey and to create prospects there so that they have no reason to immigrate to the EU illegally,” he added.

For the German government, he said, “it makes sense to continue this important agreement for both sides.”