DAILY MAIL COMMENT: This is Brussels at its most mind-boggling 

By DAILY MAIL COMMENT

Published: | Updated:

For proof of the EU’s utter incompetence in tackling the worst migration crisis since the War, look no further than this week’s draft agreement with Turkey.

Under the plan, all new migrants crossing the Aegean to Greece by irregular means will be returned to Turkey, with Brussels meeting the costs. So far, so reasonable.

But now come the catches – and they could hardly be more bizarre.

Bizarre: The EU has made clear it will pay Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's corrupt government a truly vast sum ¿ with £500million coming from British taxpayers alone

Bizarre: The EU has made clear it will pay Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's corrupt government a truly vast sum – with £500million coming from British taxpayers alone

For the extraordinary plan is that in exchange for each Syrian who is sent back after making the perilous crossing to Greek soil, another who has remained in Turkey will be resettled in Europe.

As for the Syrians, Somalis, Afghanistanis and Pakistanis intercepted on the boats, Turkey will be left to deal with them.

But it gets more bizarre. In return for Turkey’s agreement to this dubious deal, the EU has made clear it will pay President Erdogan’s corrupt government a truly vast sum – with £500million coming from British taxpayers alone.

More breathtaking still, Brussels is offering visa-free travel to Turkish citizens, perhaps as early as June, while promising to speed up talks on admitting their country to the EU.

So let’s get this straight. In answer to unmanageable migration, the eurocrats propose to give 79.4million Turks – 98 per cent of them Muslims – free access to continental Europe! And they think this makes sense?

Leave aside doubts over Turkey’s keeping its side of the bargain (though would you trust a government, with an appalling human rights record, that has just sent in riot police to close down the country’s main opposition newspaper?)

Forget the UN’s concerns about the deal’s legality – and the fact that Hungary has sworn to block any quota system for resettling Syrians.

If there were no other arguments for cutting loose from Brussels, wouldn’t these mind-bogglingly inept proposals be enough to push voters into the ‘out’ camp?

 
Home Secretary Theresa May says she wants to remain in the EU because cooperation with our partners is crucial in the fight against terrorism

Home Secretary Theresa May says she wants to remain in the EU because cooperation with our partners is crucial in the fight against terrorism

Danger in the skies

Once reckoned a Eurosceptic, Theresa May says she wants to remain in the EU because cooperation with our partners is crucial in the fight against terrorism.

So how embarrassing for the Home Secretary that Left-wingers in the European Parliament have yet again sabotaged a counter-terror plan to collect personal data on all passengers flying in and out of Europe.

Indeed, nine years have passed since this proposal was first raised, while ministers agreed that November’s Paris attacks made its implementation urgent.

Yet still we wait, while it is repeatedly blocked by disagreements between member states and MEPs.

Could anything better illustrate the bureaucratic arthritis of the EU – and the threat it poses to our safety?

 
Treatment of whistleblowers: We warmly applaud Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on his guarantee to protect those in the NHS who bring the truth to light 

Treatment of whistleblowers: We warmly applaud Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on his guarantee to protect those in the NHS who bring the truth to light 

Honesty and the NHS

For years this paper has highlighted the scandalous treatment of NHS whistleblowers, who have suffered for the ‘crime’ of bringing life-threatening failures to the public’s attention.

So we warmly applaud Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on his guarantee to protect those who bring the truth to light and his introduction of league tables rating hospitals for honesty and openness.

A similar scheme has worked in the airline industry, where pilots who report threats to passengers’ safety are promised immunity from repercussions. There is good reason to hope that in the health service, it will help prevent another Mid-Staffordshire.

As Mr Hunt rightly says, nothing is more dangerous to patients than a cover-up – while the safest hospitals are those that declare the most mistakes.

GreeceMigrant Crisis

Most watched News videos