#EU-Turkey: 'Many issues' in way of EU-Turkey deal

EU leaders are to meet to try to finalise a deal with Turkey to help ease the migrant crisis. European Council President Donald Tusk admits a 'catalogue of issues' in the way of an agreement remains unresolved.

The proposed plan would see all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey sent back. For each Syrian returned, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged EU member states to do more.

"What Turkey has done for... some 2.7 million refugees can't be praised highly enough," she told Germany's parliament on Wednesday evening.

"Europe has not covered itself with glory in how, as a union of 28 members states with 500 million citizens, it has struggled with fairly sharing the burden."

Last year, more than a million people entered the EU illegally by boat, mainly going from Turkey to Greece. More than 132,000 migrants have arrived in Greece by boat so far this year - a large increase on the same period last year.

The Brussels summit opens on 17 March and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due to join talks on Friday 18 March.

At a meeting last week where the plan was initially proposed, EU leaders said that in return for action on the migrant crisis, visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens would be available from June.

They also promised to speed up financial aid promised last year and to make a fresh push on talks over Turkey's eventual membership of the EU. However, in the latest draft of the deal the incentives being offered to the Turkish government appear to be far less cast-iron than Ankara would like, possibly following criticism from member states and MEPs.

There is no guarantee that Turkey's EU membership bid will be speeded up - only a commitment to prepare for further negotiations as soon as possible. Secondly, visa-free travel to the Schengen area for Turkish citizens by the end of June will depend on Turkey complying with all 72 conditions that the EU has set out.

Finally, there is no certainty that financial aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey will be doubled to €6 billion, instead there is only a promise to consider it, if the first tranche of money produces positive results.

In addition to these points of potential disagreement, there is continuing criticism of the legal basis for the idea of returning all irregular migrants from Greece to Turkey. The Spanish foreign minister has said Spain will oppose the 'blanket return' of refugees to Turkey.

Despite the obstacles, the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said ahead of the Brussels summit that he was 'cautiously optimistic' a deal could be reached.

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