La UE cerrará 'la ruta de los Balcanes' a los migrantes y el espacio Schengen volverá a la normalidad en diciembre

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The Balkan route taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe is going to be closed, EU leaders will declare Monday at their summit with Turkey in Brussels, diplomats and officials said over the weekend.

Their statement — to be approved by leaders on Monday — was discussed by EU ambassadors on Sunday afternoon. "Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route are coming to an end; this route is now closed," according to a copy of the document obtained by POLITICO.

The meeting did not last long and ambassadors also endorsed the aim to "take forward, as a matter of priority all the elements of the Commission roadmap," according to a diplomatic source, who added that the draft statement was not controversial. The migration roadmap, which was put out on Friday, envisages a series of steps for the return to normality in the Schengen area by December, dismantling the internal border controls reintroduced by some member states.

The new commitment to close the Western Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees traveling from Greece to Northern Europe would end the "wave-through policy" that allowed migrants to cross borders with minimal controls.

The final statement stresses the need to be aware of other routes that migrants might take if the road running through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia is shut down. There are fears, especially in Rome, that migrants will try to travel north through Albania and across the Aegean Sea to Italy.

EU unease about Turkey

An agreement at the summit still faces political hurdles, in particular unease within the EU over a domestic crackdown in Turkey. Hours after European Council President Donald Tusk left Ankara last week, Turkish authorities on Friday seized Zaman, the country's largest opposition newspaper.

The seizure prompted a mild censure by Brussels and silence in Berlin, which is eagerly seeking to get Turkey's help to slow the flow of migrants into Europe. "We should not the referee the subject of human rights for the entire planet," Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière told the Passauer Neue Presse on Saturday.

But there's enough discomfort with Turkey's behavior to cause trouble on Monday. "I am afraid we could have an intense discussion on that since some are complaining that the EU has been too soft with Ankara," said a diplomat.

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