Italy and Germany, respectively a main entry point for people reaching Europe and the main destination for refugees, have pushed jointly for asylum decisions to be made at a European level and for refugees to be brought directly and safely into Europe to be resettled across the bloc. Three bodies also have been recovered.
They had been rescued by a German ship off the coast of Libya.
One EU official said any of these issues were "a potential deal-breaker". On Tuesday, another 951 migrants were rescued.
"I conveyed to (EU Council) President Tusk our position that the Republic of Cyprus does not intent to consent to the opening of any chapters if Turkey does not fulfill its obligations as described in the negotiating framework", Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters after a meeting with EU Council President Donald Tusk in Nicosia.
"We are certainly not giving Turkey a free ride", he stressed.
Tusk, who met Anastasiades in Nicosia on Tuesday before heading to Ankara for deliberations with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, signaled sensitivity to the Cypriot reservations about the opening of new chapters in Turkey's membership bid.
The proposals suggest Turkey takes back all migrants and refugees who enter the European Union illegally from its territory or are detained in its waters.
The EU is preparing to scale back the number of Syrian refugees offered resettlement in Europe, as part of a controversial pact being drawn up with Turkey.
More than 4000 refugees and migrants have been given temporary shelter at Piraeus, the port of Athens.
"He might inspire the leaders on that day to come up with a good solution".
Legal gymnastics, and the scorn of United Nations and other rights bodies, aside, the deal foresees all those arriving having a right to state their case for asylum and to appeal. "This tests the principles and values of the civilised world, and Europe", he said, complaining that fences on closed borders were against European values. That rules out people already in Greece. It insists that Ankara should "ensure that all people seeking global protection can have a fair and efficient determination of their claims by a competent authority within a reasonable time". A calculation of agency figures Wednesday shows total land and sea arrivals into Greece were 1,000,229 since January 1, 2015.
The new figures show how much Greece has borne the brunt of the influx. Leaders may talk more about who takes how many.
Second, exchanging a refugee to be resettled from inside Turkey for each Syrian asylum seeker returned from Greece to Turkey raises concerns.
Rushing the process through to meet a June deadline set in a preliminary EU-Turkey deal reached on March 7, the Commission aims to make a legislative proposal on visa liberalisation in April, which the European Parliament and EU states would have to adopt within weeks.
In return, Ankara will get more European Union money, faster visa-free access for its citizens and an acceleration of its slow-moving European Union membership negotiations. In 1974, Turkey invaded the Northern Cyprus, and the two countries have suffered strained relations ever since.
Right-wing members of Greece's left-led coalition government are calling for the resignation of the country's minister for immigration, Ioannis Mouzalas, who departed from the official Greek line in a reference to neighboring Macedonia.
On the more down to earth pressing matters of dealing with the crisis in Greece, Timmermans said that the country should be helped in constructing the necessary reception infrastructures to aid refugees and avoid a full blown humanitarian crisis.
Ivanov called for better cooperation between Macedonian and Greek security services.
Source: "Catalogue" Of Open Issues On EU-Turkey Migration Deal — EU's Tusk
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