On Wednesday 30 November, Turkey’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Omer Celik met European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioners Dimitris Avramopoulos (Migration) and Julian King (Security Union) to take stock of the various subjects linking Turkey and the EU, and to reiterate their “mutual commitment to continue working together”, the Commission’s press department stated at the end of the meeting.
The four men discussed migration, security, terrorism, radicalisation and visa liberalisation, but the Commission nevertheless refuses to say at this point whether progress was made on visa liberalisation (in September, Turkey still had to fulfil seven criteria, involving the famous correspondence about counter-terrorism legislation). The Commission is to publish a progress report next week on the EU-Turkey partnership, and especially on the different sections of the 18 March agreement.
According to the spokespersons, Timmermans, Avramopoulos and King hailed Turkey’s continued efforts to implement the EU-Turkey agreement, and stated that the Commission would continue to meet its financial promises to Syrian refugees in Turkey. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)