Türkiye expects concrete steps from EU for advancing ties

ANKARA

Türkiye will articulate its clear expectations for strengthening ties and advancing its EU accession process during the visit of the bloc's enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, to Ankara.

According to diplomatic sources, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will host Kos on July 25. This will be the first visit by the commissioner to Türkiye, an EU candidate country, since resuming her role in December 2024.

Fidan will reiterate to the commissioner that EU membership remains Türkiye’s strategic objective with expectations of fair treatment from Brussels, the sources said. He will also underline Ankara’s expectations from the Slovenian diplomat to take concrete steps to ensure a more sustainable and predictable relationship between Ankara and Brussels.

Lifting the sanctions imposed on Türkiye in 2019 and revitalizing institutional consultative mechanisms are among the expectations from the enlargement commissioner. To this end, Fidan will reiterate the need for an immediate meeting of the Türkiye-EU Partnership Council as well as high-level dialogue meetings between the two sides.

More concretely, the Turkish top diplomat will once again voice Ankara’s readiness to launch talks for the modernization of the customs union. Fidan will also convey to his EU colleague that Ankara awaits the beginning of the activities of the Türkiye Investment Platform, which holds significant potential to boost investments in projects focused on green transformation, digitalization and connectivity.

 Visa liberalization on the agenda

Another issue the two diplomats will discuss is addressing the growing visa problem between the two sides.

At a press conference this week, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan welcomed the EU’s decision to ease visa processes for Turkish nationals but stressed that both sides must work toward achieving full visa liberalization for Türkiye’s citizens.

Fidan will reiterate that the EU’s enlargement policy must be impartial, rational, and merit-based, and that Türkiye, as a candidate country, should be invited to all meetings alongside other candidates.

According to the sources, Fidan and Kos will also speak about security cooperation with the former to voice the need for the inclusion of Türkiye in the EU’s defense and security initiatives. This partnership is not an option but a necessity based on a win-win scenario, Fidan will tell his counterpart.