EU–Turkey deal foreshadows the policy tradeoffs to come once “refugee crisis” is over

The EU – Turkey deal reveals the potential tradeoffs in future EU refugee policy, argued Julian Lehmann in a discussion organized by the Young European Federalists at the German Bundestag on March 17. In conversation with Ole Schröder (German Federal Ministry of the Interior) and Elisabeth Svantesson (Swedish Riksdag), Lehmann said that the deal – under which Turkey takes back asylum seekers in Greece in exchange for the resettlement of some Syrians from Turkey – poses a future scenario in which EU states are keen on reducing spontaneous arrivals, but reluctant to resettle asylum seekers.