During a high-level EU-Turkey meeting on transport in Brussels on Monday 27 November, the European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, and the Turkish Minister for Transport, Maritime affairs and Communication, Ahmet Arslan, welcomed the cooperation that had resumed between the two parties.
Ms Bulc explained that meetings had taken place at the beginning of July in Ankara and Istanbul, which helped to relaunch cooperation between the two parties, especially in three areas. The Turkish Minister asserted that his country was still determined to join the European Union and stated that this cooperation, particularly in the aviation domain, should be subject to a technical remit and should not be dictated by political differences.
The EU and Turkey began with a commitment to develop joint projects in the Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T) and, more particularly, in the railway sector. Ms Bulc and Mr Arslan were keen to emphasise that this cooperation would help enhance connectivity between the Union and Asia. The latter added that for this purpose, a high-level workgroup had been set up at the end of this meeting, in an effort to help put forward concrete proposals in this regard.
Ms Bulc and Mr Arslan also said that road safety was an important domain in which the EU and Turkey should work together. In this connection, they warmly welcomed the launch last July of the joint “Vision Zero” project to reduce the number of road accidents.
The third major project tackled by Ms Bulc and Mr Arslan involved the aviation domain, given the fact that the two parties are currently negotiating a joint airspace agreement. The former declared that the two parties were “fully committed” to finalising this agreement over the next few months. Mr Arslan said that signing this kind of agreement would produce a “win-win” situation and that the EU and Turkey would benefit from it economically. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)