The EU-Turkey Joint Statement of March 2016. An 'ad-hoc' solution to the refugee crisis or a new pillar for the European Common Asylum System external dimension?

The political agreement to involve Turkey in the EU policies aimed at containing the entry of refugees thorough Greece was a milestone in the process of curving the entry of refugees during the 2015/16 refugee crisis in Europe. The agreement consisted on a broad exchange of measures to strengthen the role of Turkey as a gatekeeper of the European Union borders, in view of the increase of refugees arriving to the EU soil through Turkey and the general perception that the Syrian war could send more refugees in the following years. The present text aims at providing the context for the political agreement, a review of the measures that it entailed and their legal implications, and it will also bring to light some of the problems that rose at the implementation stage. It will take stock of the further geo-political developments that affected the treaty, and particularly the failed 'putch' in Turkey and the state of emergency decreed afterwards that indirectly cast doubts on the continuity of the agreement. Against an official narrative that stresses the efficacy of the agreement and its role in decreasing the risks of deaths at sea and the fight against traffickers, the paper underlines several shortcomings of that approach