Ankara hopes to gain momentum in its long-frozen relations with the European Union as the bloc’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas will pay an official visit to Turkey this Friday for talks on regional developments and bilateral relations, Turkish media reported.
Kallas is expected to hold high-level talks with Turkish officials on regional foreign policy, defence and security steps, and the development of Turkey-EU relations.
Turkey-EU ties were discussed in detail in 2024 and Turkey expects the European Investment Bank (EIB) to overcome obstacles at high-level political dialogue meetings on economy, transport, energy and politics in 2025, the country’s ambassador to the bloc, Faruk Kaymakçı, said.
Turkey has been a candidate for EU membership for more than two decades, but talks stalled in 2016 due to what Ankara said was the bloc’s “insistence on politicising the issue.”
Turkey believes it has fulfilled most of the criteria for EU membership. Although the accession process has stalled, the country remains a key economic and defence partner of the 27-member bloc.
Hopes for 2025
According to Kaymakçı, Turkey is entering 2025 with greater hope in light of the European Commission’s enlargement and Turkey reports, which mark Ankara’s progress in certain areas of its membership criteria, as well as key developments in bilateral ties in 2024. Kaymakçı told Anadolu Agency (AA) in a review of 2024:
“Our Foreign Minister (Hakan Fidan) was invited to the Gymnich meeting after five years, which was highly beneficial as the minister conveyed firsthand Turkey’s determination on membership and capabilities for co-operation with the EU on foreign policy, security and defense.”
He also pointed to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Ankara last month as a promising development for normalising and improving Turkey-EU relations by 2025.
Von der Leyen met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 17 and discussed the latest situation in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime, financial support for reconstruction, the fight against terrorism and Turkey’s accession to the EU.
EU membership is of strategic importance for Turkey, which expects the EU to lift restrictions, resume high-level dialogue, renew the customs union and ease the visa process up to full visa liberalisation, Erdogan said at a joint press conference with von der Leyen.
For her part, the EU chief described Turkey-EU relations as “rich and complex” and instead pointed to growing economic ties, saying the bloc aims to increase trade by 206 billion euros in the coming period.
After Kallas, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos will also visit Turkey in the next couple of months, Kaymakci said. Kallas, who took office on December 1, 2024, also met Fidan at meetings on Syria in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Kaymakçı said it was “absolutely meaningless” that high-level political dialogue and Partnership Council meetings continue to be blocked by the EU, which focus on regional politics, bilateral relations, security and defence.
“Because if Turkey and the EU want a healthy co-operation on foreign policy and security, this can only happen with an established mechanism,” he said, noting that one of Turkey’s chief expectations this year is the implementation of such mechanisms.
In an interview published last month, Fidan called on the EU to return to a “pre-Sarkozy” era in Turkey’s membership process, which he said included a more “strategic view” of Turkey and the bloc fell victim to “domestic politics and identity politics” after French President Nicolas Sarkozy came to power in 2007.
