BRUSSELS- European Union foreign ministers meeting for emergency talks on Turkey and Syria on Friday will offer 60 million euros in additional humanitarian aid for the northeastern province of Idlib, according to diplomatic sources in the bloc.
Idlib has been the latest flashpoint in the nine-year-old war in Syria, with Russia-backed Syrian government forces fighting rebels supported by Turkey. The U.N. aid chief has said humanitarian efforts to support nearly 1 million people who fled the recent fighting have been overwhelmed.
"The European Commission is mobilising further 60 million euros in humanitarian assistance for northwestern Syria," a draft joint decision prepared for the EU foreign ministers meeting in Zagreb said, according to diplomats.
EU member states, however, are at odds over what to do about Turkey, where Ankara has stepped away from a 2016 deal with the bloc to keep a lid on migration from the Middle East.
The EU is desperate to avoid any repeat of 2015/16 when more than a million refugees and migrants arrived on its soil, overwhelming security and welfare systems, and fuelling support for eurosceptic and right-win groups across the bloc.
EU officials say about 25,000 people have now gathered on the Greek-Turkish border, seeking to enter the bloc, and Athens has demanded a tough line on what it sees as "blackmail" by President Tayyip Erdogan.
The latest draft statement, which has so far not won backing from Greece or Cyprus, also says that the bloc would "continue support... including for refugees in Turkey as per commitments under the EU-Turkey statement of 2016."
It does not include any specific amount of further funding.
Before the foreign ministers' Friday talks, EU interior ministers meet in Brussels later on Wednesday to express support for Greece in protecting the EU external frontier.
As Greek riot police and troops used water cannon and tear gas on Wednesday against migrants attempting to cross over from Turkey, Charles Michel, a top EU official, met Ergodan to sound out his demands in exchange for Turkey resuming its prevention of people crossing to Europe.
Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million refugees from Syria and the bloc has already offered 6 billion euros in humanitarian support for them under the 2016 deal.
"It's not a repeat of the 2015/16 migration crisis - yet," an EU diplomat said. "Erdogan is in trouble in Syria, in trouble with Russia, and is pushing to get more support from us. Money is what we can give but he is asking for military support."
"It is very hard to see Cyprus or Greece - who want clear focus on the borders and their own problems with Turkey - to agree to sprinkle money now on Erdogan or back him in any military sense."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been quoted as saying on Tuesday that she favoured setting up safety zones in northern Syria. This might also be discussed on Friday but would be a tough sell for the EU, which is at loggerheads with Turkey over hydrocarbon drilling in east Mediterranean.
(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by William Maclean) ((gabriela.baczynska@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 287 68 39; Reuters Messaging: gabriela.baczynska.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
