Turkey won't make new demands at EU summit, senior official says


Turkey does not plan to make new demands at a meeting with EU leaders on the refugee crisis and sees the chances of finalizing a deal as difficult but not impossible, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.Should there be new proposals from the European side, Turkey would discuss them, the official said, adding that countries including Cyprus should not be allowed to block progress.The official also said a visit by European Council President Donald Tusk to Ankara this week had not fully resolved issues over the deal.Meanwhile, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that he is confident that an agreement will be reached between Turkey and Europe by Friday.

According to the draft document circulating at the Brussels summit, Turkey agreed to take some Syrian refugees based on the 'one in, one out' formula while the EU for its part is expected to lift visa restrictions for Turks, pay an additional an extra 3 billion euros in funds to help refugees in Turkey and cooperate with Turkey on building humanitarian zones inside Syria.