Europe nears accord with Turkey to stem tide of refugees

At the end of a two-day summit meeting in Malta, officials with the European Union said they had agreed to offer Turkey 3 billion euros, or about $3.2 billion, over the next two years to help Turkey cope with the more than two million Syrian refugees who had sought refuge there.

The leaders also agreed to invite President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to a summit meeting in Brussels with the bloc’s 28 leaders to discuss a range of issues that could include the country’s long-stalled bid to join the union as well as efforts to help curb migration.

Many of the migrants making their way from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations to Western Europe travel through Turkey. Reaching an accord with Mr. Erdogan and the Turkish government is widely seen as vital to reducing the flow of people through the Balkans and eventually to Germany, Sweden and other rich countries in Northern Europe.

With the crisis showing little sign of abating, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, the body representing European Union leaders, said failure to secure the bloc’s external borders could tear apart a policy of allowing free movement of people across most of the Continent.

But dealings with Turkey have been complicated by unease among European leaders about what they see as repressive actions against dissent and freedom of speech in Turkey under Mr. Erdogan’s leadership. As a result, they have been reluctant to grant Mr. Erdogan any concessions in areas like his drive to accelerate membership in the union.

The need for Europe to limit the number of people leaving Turkey for the Continent has given Mr. Erdogan an opening for a deal in which he would help to provide better conditions for the refugees in Turkey in return for closer relations with Europe.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said the €3 billion would not be "money to be given to Turkey, but to help the Syrian refugees in Turkey.”

Mr. Erdogan has repeatedly highlighted the burdens Turkey is bearing by having to feed and house so many people.

The money, which would include €500 million from a central European Union budget, should help Europe "conclude our negotiations with Turkey at the special summit” meeting, Mr. Juncker said. But he also acknowledged that the details of raising the remaining €2.5 billion from individual member governments still needed to be settled.

Mr. Tusk of the European Council, which represents leaders of European Union member states, said he was "99 percent sure” that the summit meeting with Mr. Erdogan would take place at the end of November.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said summit meetings between the European Union and Turkey should not become a regular event. But the strains of the migration crisis on Europe were plain to see on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Sweden defended its decision to reintroduce border controls as Europe’s leaders also wrapped up an agreement to provide African nations with €1.8 billion intended to speed up the process of returning people to Africa who have not qualified for asylum and to discourage others who would not qualify from migrating.

Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, in West Africa, said the deal could still "be improved” and the fund "more generously financed.”