Migrant crisis: EU approves 3 bn-euro fund for Turkey

[Little Tich]

Source: BBC

The EU has approved €3bn ($3.3bn; £2.2bn) in funding to help Turkey cope with record numbers of Syrian migrants.

The organisation hopes the fund will lower the number of arrivals into EU nations.

Under the deal, the EU's executive is contributing €1bn to the fund, while the 28 member states will contribute the rest.

More than a million migrants reached the EU last year by sea, many of them travelling through Turkey.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35486655

[metroins]

1. Likely going to be wasted

Turkey isn't a very trustworthy partner.

[ErisDiscordia]

2. And not a euro to Greece, the place where they all land, half-drowned or more

What a blessing it is, NOT to belong to the European Common Market and Eurozone!

[branford]

3. The money to Turkey will theoretically slow the tide of people entering Greece.

However, I do not believe theory will operate in practice.

[strategery blunder]

4. And do nothing for the hundreds of thousands already there,

trapped by a combination of border controls, an economy in severe depression and no job prospects, and EU apathy and indifference.

The EU has made a mockery of itself by demanding Greece "live up to its responsibilities" yet demanding that Greece pay its debt to EU banksters before any other priority (which leaves Greece with no funds left to fulfill its other responsibilities).

[branford]

5. Greece has obligations under the EU's Dublin Agreement,

and they have willfully ignored those responsibilities. I agree they should be supported in fulfilling these obligations, but before receiving such support, they need to demonstrate a sincere desire and willingness to comply.

Further, Greece wasn't broke because of "EU banksters." They were bankrupt because for generations they ran the country like a third-world, corrupt, incompetent kelptocracy. They squandered the vast largess, credit and investment from first joining the EU and then the Euro. They then failed to live up to their voluntary agreed responsibilities under multiple bail-out received from the taxpayers of other EU states, money those taxpayers will like never see repaid. Greece also always had the option of leaving the Euro and reclaim their independence from those evil bankers. Both the elite and common Greeks both realized that would not solve any of their problems, rather they would make them far worse.

The EU should indeed offer some support to Greece for the migrants, but solidarity works in two directions, and Greece is not nearly nearly the victim you imply, and would be far worse without the generosity of its EU peers.