2015-11-30wsj.com

Under Sunday's agreement, Turkey would increase patrols in the Aegean Sea and on the land borders with Greece and Bulgaria, as well as crack down on human-trafficking gangs. Turkey also agreed--starting next year--to implement an agreement to take back migrants whose asylum claims are denied by EU countries.

In exchange, EU leaders pledged to provide an "initial" €3 billion ($3.19 billion) to Turkey to help it handle the more than two million refugees in the country. Much of that money would go directly to groups helping refugees in Turkey or to programs set up by the Turkish government to house, train and integrate migrants.

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Yet the continued lack of trust on both sides remained evident, as EU leaders made it clear there would be no shortcut in Turkey's long-stalled bid to join the bloc. "The issue hasn't changed," French President François Hollande said after leaving the summit to return to Paris for global climate talks. "There is no reason either to accelerate or to slow it down." And the Turks couldn't say how effective the agreement would be in reducing the number of the migrants and refugees entering the EU via Turkey.



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