STRASBOURG: A controversial migrant deal between the EU and Turkey is facing “a very dangerous moment” as the two sides wrangle over Ankara’s fulfilment of its terms, a Turkish minister warned on Wednesday.

“All the agreements we have achieved until now, built on confidence, goodwill, taking responsibilities, and also taking political risks, is facing a very dangerous moment,” Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir said at a news conference with European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

His remarks highlight growing tensions between the two sides over a landmark deal in March under which Turkey agreed to help stem the migrant flow to Europe in return for political incentives and billions of euros in aid from Brussels.

Bozkir said Turkey had basically fulfilled the terms of the deal, even though Brussels is insisting Ankara meet five more benchmarks before Turkish nationals can to enjoy visa-free travel to Europe.

“This not a mathematics problem. This is a political problem,” Bozkir said of the five benchmarks during a visit to the European parliament in the French city of Strasbourg.

“Our interpretation is that we have fulfilled our expectations sufficiently enough,” he added.

Bozkir reiterated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opposition to changing Turkey’s anti-terror legislation, which the EU says is one of the five outstanding benchmarks left from a list of 72.

It would be “completely impossible” for Turkey to change the anti-terrorism law which is “relevant to European standards”, he said.With Turkey in the throes of a major campaign against Kurdish militants, Ankara has said it does not have the luxury of being able to change its anti-terror laws, but analysts have warned that the problem risks blocking the deal with the EU.

Speaking to the parliament, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Turkey had “made really substantial progress in fulfilling the visa liberalisation roadmap” but must take further steps.

Turkey, he said, must do more to fight corruption, align personal data protection laws with EU standards and conclude an operational cooperation agreement with Europol, the EU law enforcement agency.

He also said it must offer “effective judicial cooperation in criminal matters to all member states” and “better align” its counter-terror laws and practices with EU standards.

He said the overall migrant deal had already led to a “clear reduction” of irregular migrant arrivals to Greece from 6,000 a day in October last year to a daily figure of around 140 in April.

Most of the 1.25 million Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who have entered the bloc since last year travelled from Turkey to Greece on rickety boats over the Aegean Sea.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2016