EU chiefs to visit Turkey on April 6 to meet Erdoğan
EU Council, Commission presidents will pay a visit to Turkey on April 6 to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to the information gained from the officials.
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- Published Date: 03:20 | 29 March 2021
- Modified Date: 09:58 | 29 March 2021
The EU did not give further details of the trip by Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen. But the visit is part of a relaunch of relations approved by EU leaders last week after Turkey moved to calm a dispute over hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey, an EU candidate country, has not held a formal summit with EU leaders since May 2018, when Erdoğan met the previous Council and Commission chiefs, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker.
After last week's EU Council meeting which discussed the bloc's relations with Turkey, Michel said they are in contact with Turkish authorities for a possible visit to Turkey in April.
"We are ready, with the European Council, with member states, to put more concrete proposals on the table in order to have a more stable, more predictable relationship with Turkey," Michel said in a joint news conference with von der Leyen following a virtual EU leaders' summit.
During their visit, top EU officials are expected to discuss new steps to revive EU-Turkey ties, by relaunching high-level political dialogue, starting negotiations on the modernization of the 25-year-old Customs Union, and by renewing the 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal.