The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey on April 6 in Turkey, an EU spokesman said on Monday, in the latest sign of improving bilateral ties.
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.
