On Friday 6 February, during a trip to Türkiye, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, said that “as realities in Europe are changing, we need to look with fresh eyes at EU-Türkiye relations”.
In a joint statement, the commissioner and the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, reaffirmed Türkiye’s candidate status and recognised the “strategic value” of bilateral relations “in promoting regional stability and economic resilience in a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape”.
According to Marta Kos and Hakan Fidan, recent global and regional developments have further accentuated the strategic importance of EU-Türkiye relations. Welcoming the recent mutual engagement in their relations in various areas of common interest and reiterating their desire to translate this into concrete action, the two parties acknowledged that strengthening this collaboration, particularly in the areas of security and connectivity, was of “strategic importance”.
The minister stressed the urgent need to remove the outstanding blockages in bilateral relations and called for the establishment of a “broader, institutional, and multidimensional framework of cooperation”.
The commissioner and the minister also reaffirmed the importance of economic integration between Türkiye and the EU, with the minister stressing the “growing urgency” of updating the Customs Union. They agreed to continue their dialogue with a view to improving the implementation of this union and they share the desire to work towards modernising it and achieving its full potential “in order to support competitiveness, and economic security and resilience for both sides”.
Marta Kos and Hakan Fidan also reiterated the importance of the dialogue on visa liberalisation and the strengthening of cooperation on security and migration through the established high-level dialogue.
Finally, at a time when Türkiye’s EU accession process has been put on hold due to the state of the rule of law in the country, Marta Kos reiterated that dialogue on the rule of law and democratic standards was an integral part of relations. She also welcomed Türkiye’s engagement in the ongoing informal process on Cyprus. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)