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Sharing a land border with the European Union comes with both perks and drawbacks. In a bid to boost trade with the EU and promote other aspects of integration, Turkey and Morocco have found that controlling the flow of migrants across their borders with the EU is a powerful bargaining chip.

Last year, the EU made a controversial deal with Turkey, in which the bloc agreed to give the country 6 billion ($6.8 billion) in aid, consider visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens, and renew stalled EU membership talks. In return, Turkey agreed to take back migrants who crossed over to Greece if they never applied for asylum or had their claim rejected. The dealheavily criticized by human rights groupsreduced the number of migrants arriving in Greece by a staggering 90% within a few months of it coming into force.

Since the deal, Turkey has reminded the EU on numerous occasions about its end of the bargain. Last August, Turkey threatened to tear up the deal if its citizens were not granted visa-free travel within months. Turkey threatened this again in November, after the European parliament took a largely symbolic vote to freeze talks on EU membership.

You clamored when 50,000 refugees came to Kapikule, and started wondering what would happen if the border gates were opened, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan said at speech in response to the vote. If you go any further, these border gates will be opened, he added.

Turkey has used migrants as political currency for other matters, too; last month, Turkey warned it could cancel the EU deal after Greece refused to extradite eight Turkish soldiers who fled after a failed coup in July. We are evaluating what we can do, including the cancellation of the readmission deal with Greece, foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in response to the ruling. This week, Turkey once again urged the EU to hurry up and grant its citizens the right to travel to the bloc without visas.

A similar dynamic is playing out on the other side of the Mediterranean, at the only land border between Europe and Africa. Morocco recently hit back at the European Court of Justice, which challenged Moroccos claim to Western Sahara last year. Up until the ruling, Western Saharaa former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975 was subject to a bilateral free-trade agreement between Morocco and the EU. But since the ruling dismissed Moroccos claim to the territory, the two EU deals with Moroccoa 2000 co-operation agreement and a 2012 trade pactno longer applied.

Any obstacle in the application of this agreement is a direct attack on thousands of jobs on both sides, and risks the resumption of migratory flows, which Morocco has succeeded in containing through a deliberate, sustained effort, the agricultural ministry said in a statement.

To stem migrant flows, the EU pays Morocco tens of millions of euros a year. The agreement has largely quelled the irregular incursions at the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. But tensions at the border have flared once again, with hundreds of migrants storming the fence (paywall) at Ceuta last month.

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Countries are using the EU's greatest fear as their ultimate bargaining chip - Quartz

European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Theresa May during the EU summit in Malta. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Theresa Mays hopes of conducting free trade talks with the EU from day one of the Brexit negotiations appear to have been dashed by an increasing number of member states taking a hard line on the process.

The British government believes there should be parallel talks on the terms of the UKs withdrawal and the future trading relationship. The timeline is key to Mays hopes of completing a free trade agreement by the end of the two years allowed for negotiations under the Lisbon treaty.

However, political parties in the Czech parliament have joined senior figures in Rome and Berlin in backing the European commissions line that there can be no such talks until Britain has agreed to pay its bills and has struck an agreement on the rights of EU nationals.

Britains bill is expected to come to about 60bn, although the exact figure will change depending on when exactly the UK leaves the EU.

In a statement, the Czech parties said: Although an agreement on a future relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU is, from a long-term perspective, a key part of the process, it should be preceded by an agreement on the basic outline of the conditions for the UKs withdrawal from the European Union, which will serve as the framework for negotiations on future relations.

In an interview published in the Financial Times on Friday (paywall), Sandro Gozi, Italys minister for European affairs, said it was important to stagger talks. Parallel negotiations may be interesting for London, but I think they are a bad idea, also for the UK. This is a damage limitation process so it requires even more good faith than usual, he said.

An unnamed German official also told the newspaper: We agree with the commission in reference to article 50.

The Czech parties also said they were keen to prevent tariff or non-tariff barriers to trade following the UKs withdrawal. However, they expressed concern about the future of their citizens living in Britain and the loss of British input into the EUs budget as well as the need for a financial settlement to ameliorate the situation for the remaining 27 member states.

They said: We agree that the emphasis should be on preserving the current level of acquired rights of Czech citizens, not only for those that already reside in the United Kingdom, but also for students and academic workers who contribute to the growth of competitiveness across the entire union.

Our citizens currently living in the UK have made life choices based on legitimate expectations and made use of the rights granted to them by their citizenship and the membership of the Czech Republic in the EU.

This should be reflected in the upcoming negotiations. Furthermore, we will endeavour to reach a just financial settlement between the European Union and the United Kingdom with consideration to the fact that the United Kingdom does not want to fully participate in the EU budget in the future.

Jean Claude-Juncker, the commission president, insists the UK will have to settle its bills before significant talks about the future can begin. On Tuesday, he said the cost of Brexit to the British Treasury would be very hefty. Juncker met Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, on Wednesday night.

At a meeting of the EU27 and the commissions chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels last week, it was suggested that Britain was likely to be asked to pay about 57bn (48bn) in instalments over the next six years.

May had been widely expected to trigger article 50 talks at a European council summit in Brussels on 9-10 March. But on Thursday the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, said he believed the moved would be delayed a little.

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EU politicians back call for UK to agree 60bn exit bill before trade talks - The Guardian

United States Vice President Mike Pence, left, and EU Council President Donald Tusk pose for photographers as Pence arrives at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Feb. 20, 2017. (AP)

BRUSSELS The Star-Spangled Banner looked more starry than usual during one of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's appearances in Brussels.

A background picture of the American flag that went up alongside the European Union flag as Pence and EU leader Donald Tusk spoke on Monday had 51 stars instead of the usual 50, one for each state.

The Brussels version of the flag had three rows of nine stars and three rows with eight stars each. American flags typically feature a total of nine alternating rows of five or six stars

The EU flag featuring 12 stars in a circle against a blue background was configured correctly. And the American flag had the right number of stripes 13.

The EU Council did not immediately respond when asked about the error with the misplaced star-state.

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American flag contains 51 stars for Pence visit to European ...

Express.co.uk

European Union Threatens To Fine Italy For Deficit Caused By European Union Forbes The inherent contradictions of the euro and the eurozone system are on display here as the European Union threatens to fine Italy for the size of the national debt. That size of the national debt not being something under the control of the Italian ... European Union CONGRATULATES members for its economic performances despite eurozone CRISISExpress.co.uk European Union Warns Italy of 133% Debt to GDPFinancial Tribune EU says Germany should do more to help economyEurActiv all 55 news articles »

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European Union Threatens To Fine Italy For Deficit Caused By European Union - Forbes

Diplomats said that Pence's message of reassurance fell flat on European officials who are concerned about contradictory messages from Washington regarding the future relationship between the US and the EU. And it adds tothe list of subjects about which President Donald Trump and administration officials are confusing allies.

Bannon told Peter Witting, the German ambassador to the US, that the Trump administration wants to strengthen bilateral ties with individual European countries rather than deal with the entire bloc, the sources said.

In what was described as a "combative" conversation, the sources said Bannon spelled out a nationalist world view and citeda wave of anti-EU populism as evidence of the bloc's flaws, a similar refrain to the one he had previously articulated as the chief of the right-wing website Breitbart News.

"It is my privilege on behalf of President Trump to express the strong commitment of the United States to continued cooperation and partnership with the European Union," he said at a meetingwith European Council President Donald Tusk. "The United States' commitment to the European Union is steadfast and enduring."

A senior Trump administration official denied that Bannon disparaged the European Union during what they said was a "quick meeting"with the German ambassador.

Separately, a White House spokesperson said the conversation being described as confrontational was "not an accurate account" and that the conversation "was just a quick hello."

The vice president's office did not respond to a request for comment.

"There is no one in the administration who really understands the EU's important role and certainly nobody who will defend it," one diplomat told CNN, adding, "Pence and others are saying basic reassuring things that we aren't sure square with not only the policy, but also what where the President sits."

The official continued, "We don't want to jump to conclusions. We don't know whether Bannon will be able to carry through with his vision and we don't know what Trump thinks."

The conversation between Bannon and Wittig was first reported by Reuters.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault pointed out the omission on Twitter following Pence's speech to the Munich Security Conference ahead of his Brussels stop.

"In Munich, Vice President Pence renewed the U.S. commitment to the Atlantic alliance. But not a word about the EU," he wrote.

Speaking after meeting with Pence Monday, however, Tusk stressed Pence's expression of backing for the EU during their private session.

"We are counting, as always in the past, on the United States' wholehearted and unequivocal -- let me repeat, unequivocal --support for the idea of a united Europe," Tusk said. The world would be a decidedly worse place if Europe were not united," Tusk said. "In this respect we will not invent anything better than the European Union."

A senior White House official involved in foreign policy told CNN that the Trump administration's European policy is neither "pro-EU" nor "anti-EU."

The official explained that the administration would focus on cooperation with the bloc without advocating for it overtly, adding that if a country decides to hold a referendum on exiting the union, the White House will remain neutral.

That's a shift from the administration of President Barack Obama, which vocally advocated against Britain's decision to leave the EU this summer, a campaign that included a presidential visit to London in April 2016.

Decisions on whether to remain a member, the official said, should be left to the countries themselves, without US interference. The official added that while the US will seek to cooperate with the EU in already-existing areas of collaboration, it is not seeking to bolster the union by preventing further disintegration.

Trump himself praised the Brexit vote during the presidential campaign, calling himself "Mr. Brexit" following the result of the referendum.

And days before his inauguration Trump called the EU "basically a vehicle for Germany" in an interview with German and British newspapers, adding, "That's why I thought the UK was so smart in getting out."

In Brussels, Pence was extremely cautious in his language on the EU. While he vowed "cooperation" with the bloc, he never explicitly said the US "supports" the EU.

Both Wittig and the German government declined to comment for this story, citing the private nature of the conversation.

But one of the diplomatic sources CNN spoke to said that Wittig gave a passionate argument about the importance of the EU and felt his views were heard by Bannon.

Pence repeatedly stressed the defense spending issue during his European tour -- as did Defense Secretary James Mattis, who also attended the Munich conference -- something German officials called a "fair demand." But both men also repeatedly stressed America's support of NATO.

CNN's Kevin Liptak, Dan Merica and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.

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Bannon, Pence send contradictory messages to EU - CNN