Speakers: Franck Duvell (Universitat Osnabrück); Başak Kale (METU); Kemal Kirişci (Brookings Institution)
Chairs: Othon Anastasakis (St Antony’s College, Oxford) and Mehmet Karlı (St Antony’s College, Oxford)

The much-criticized 2016 EU-Turkey Deal on migration has effectively run its course. While the deal managed to reduce the numbers of refugees entering the EU and providing around Euro 6 billion assistance to Turkey, it has failed in its other promises like visa-free travel for Turkish citizens and the modernization of the customs union. Although each party has been accusing the other of failing to meet its obligations under the Deal, there, nevertheless, appears to be a willingness on both sides to continue the arrangement.
Since 2020, the EU and Turkey have been negotiating to hammer out a follow-up deal. The Afghan crisis of summer 2021, the resulting flow of Afghan refugees into Turkey and Turkish decision makers’ increasing statements calling out the EU for failing to share the burden of hosting refugees have accentuated the need to reach a new agreement. Under these circumstances, migration diplomacy between the EU and Turkey eclipses all other issues in the agenda of EU-Turkey relations. This provokes the criticism that EU-Turkey relations have become increasingly transactional, mono-dimensional and devoid of any principled framework. This seminar will review the current state of migration diplomacy between the EU and Turkey, examine whether the Deal may continue and how it should -or should not- continue and evaluate the impact of the currently prevailing transactionalism over the EU-Turkey relations in general.

свернуть