EU agrees migrant plan to put to Turkey Friday

European Union leaders have agreed a common stance on a plan to send tens of thousands of migrants back to Turkey which they will put to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Friday.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel tweeted news of the agreement late Thursday after talks in Brussels where leaders were assured that the draft deal would not result in mass deportations.

The summit chairman, EU President Donald Tusk, and the head of the executive Commission are scheduled to present Europe's position to Davutoğlu early Friday for his endorsement.

If Davutoğlu objects the heads of state and government of the 28 EU nations will meet again to reconsider their position.

Under Turkey's proposal to the EU, the country wants the 28-nation bloc to "share the burden'' based on a formula of "for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from the Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU member states".

Ankara also wants visa liberalization by June, speeding up Turkey's accession talks, and additional three billion euros [$3.4 billion] to meet the needs of Syrian refugees in the country.

Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of refugees have crossed the Aegean Sea to reach Greece. This has placed a huge strain on the austerity-hit EU member and threatened the EU's internal open border system, as countries to the north of Greece impose frontier restrictions.