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2016-03-21 — ft.com

The deal with Turkey is as sordid as anything I have seen in modern European politics. On the day that EU leaders signed the deal, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, gave the game away: "Democracy, freedom and the rule of law . . . For us, these words have absolutely no value any longer." At that point, the European Council should have ended the conversation with Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister, and sent him home. But instead they made a deal with him -- money and a lot more in return for help with the refugee crisis.

... The EU not only sold its soul that day, it actually negotiated a pretty lousy deal... The agreement with Turkey will also have an impact on the UK referendum debate. Would the camp in favour of leaving the EU not have something to say about visa-free travel for 75m Turks? ... It is not easy to make a purely rational case for Britain's exit from the EU. But when the EU loses its moral high ground, we should not be surprised that people begin to question what it stands for, and why it is needed.

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