The European Union-Turkey Cooperation on Migration matters: Towards a Review of the Migratory Statement of 18 march 2016

Cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Turkey on migration matters is an essential element in the migration policy of the European Union. This controversial cooperation has been reformulated within the framework of the response to the migration crisis, one of its central elements being the EU-Turkey statement, 18 March 2016. Regardless of the questionable content of the Statement, it is particularly controversial that an agreement of this relevance has been exclusively included in a press release of a Joint Declaration between the EU and Turkey. In this way, the procedure for negotiating and signing international treaties, provided for in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, has been avoided; in particular, the participation of the European Parliament and the intervention of national parliaments. On February 28, 2017, the General Court has dismissed three annulment actions against this Statement. The Court, in an excessively formal interpretation,