PM: Turkey is not begging for money from EU

BERLIN

Turkey is a country most affected by the refugee crisis and expects from EU countries to share the burden, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday.

"We are not begging for money from the EU," Davutoglu told German Press Agency (DPA), ahead of his official talks in Berlin.

"We have 2.5 million refugees in Turkey from Syria, from Iraq 300,000 more. Turkey has spent close to $10 billion on the refugees," he said.

"There are many things to be done, together with the EU, together with the international community. But nobody can expect from Turkey to carry the entire burden alone," he stressed.

Davutoglu is visiting Berlin on Friday for the first ever-joint Cabinet meeting between Turkey and Germany, which will focus on cooperation in addressing the refugee crisis, fight against terrorism and Syria conflict.

At an EU-Turkey summit last November, EU has promised 3 billion euros ($3.28 billion) aid to Turkey to support projects that would improve the living conditions of refugees in the country and address the problems of refugee influx.

But Italy has reportedly objected to the formula proposed for collecting the funding, which is planned to come from both the EU budget and member states.

Davutoglu said Turkey has taken first steps as part of the EU-Turkey action plan agreed in November, introduced visa requirements for Syrian nationals coming from third countries, and also opened labor market to Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Davutoglu said, during Friday’s intergovernmental consultations, Turkish and German delegations will have detailed discussions on the refugee crisis.

"But at the same time we will be talking about how to fight against terrorism, about intelligence cooperation and regional issues, in Syria, in Iraq, in the Middle East and in the Balkans," he said.