EU rolls out action plan with Turkey on refugee issues

The European Commission released a draft action plan to step up European Union (EU)-Turkey cooperation on support to refugees and migration management in view of the situation in Syria and Iraq.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday handed over the draft to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the latter's visit to Brussels.

The draft action plan was aimed to address the current refugee crisis situation in two ways: by supporting the refugees and their host communities in Turkey, and by strengthening cooperation to prevent irregular migration flows to the EU, Xinhua reported.

"Work is ongoing to reach agreement on the details," said the commission in a statement.

Turkey has already spent more than 6.75 billion euros of its own resources on addressing the refugee crisis, and the draft plan said the EU side intends to mobilise up to one billion euros for the period 2015-16 to support Turkey in coping with the challenge represented by the presence of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

Turkey has welcomed 2.2 million Syrian refugees 300,000 Iraqis refugees in the country, said Erdogan during his visit.

After the agreement by the two leaders, the details of the draft action plan needs to be agreed between the two sides.