Informal Foreign Affairs Council (Gymnich): Press remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell after the meeting
Source:European Union External Action Date:08Feb2024
For the reader’s convenience, I summarized Borrell’s comments and answer to a question from a long text:
Finally on Turkey: after a long pause; we brought the topic of our relations back on the agenda.
I think that we have to call for a closer cooperation between the European Union and Turkey, avoid confrontation and increase cooperation. For that, we have to reach out to Turkey, taking into account the Cyprus issue.
We discussed the situation and opportunities in the area of foreign policy, and the conclusion is that we need to engage more with Turkey and work on areas where our interests converge and avoid irritants among us.
This has been a summary of a very intense debate – an intense political debate because time requires such kinds of meetings.
- On Turkey: I would like to ask if 2024 will keep being a testing year for Turkey or are the steps made until now are enough for more progress, even regarding the visa liberalisation?
Well, as I said, everybody agrees I think that we have to go for a strong engagement with Turkey to avoid confrontation and increase cooperation. But this will depend on the evolution of facts. What is clear is that we have to engage more with Turkey. If we want to avoid confrontation and increase cooperation, we have to engage more. I do not know exactly what is going to happen with the visa [liberalisation] and other particular issues – that has not been discussed today. But the general feeling is that in order even to solve the Cyprus question – which for us, Cyprus is a Member of the European Union – it’s very high on our agenda, we have to engage more with Turkey in a positive manner.