Türkiye’s permanent representative to the EU stated that 2024 was a crucial year for in-depth discussions on Türkiye-EU relations and for acknowledging the significance of cooperation.
Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı voiced Türkiye’s hope to eliminate barriers hindering the Association Council by engaging in high-level political dialogue on key areas such as the economy, transportation, energy, and politics.
Speaking to journalists on the past year in Turkish-EU ties and expectations for 2025, he said the easing in the Eastern Mediterranean since early 2023, improving ties with Greece, and the growing need for cooperation between Türkiye and the EU in both regional foreign policy areas and security and defense issues in the international context strongly shows the need for normalization and advancement of Türkiye-EU relations.
Stressing that a joint Turkish-EU declaration should be adopted as soon as possible, Kaymakcı said the issue couldn’t be discussed at the December 2023 EU summit for various reasons, but it was on EU leaders’ agenda at the April 2024 summit.
Reactivating High-Level Economic Dialogue and European Investment Bank
Saying the EU has failed to take concrete steps to meet Türkiye’s expectations, Kaymakci explained: “At the end of 2024, the EU summit gave the green light to pave the way for the High-Level Economic Dialogue and the European Investment Bank to return to its activities in Türkiye, but we expect these to be realized concretely. We want to see a clear date for the High-Level Economic Dialogue. We want to see a step for the EIB to start its normal activities in Türkiye immediately. The start of the EIB’s normal activities in Türkiye will mean that the Investment Platform for Türkiye will also start working effectively.”
He said that the EU is gradually narrowing its policy of giving grants to candidate countries and accepting more packages for investment and growth plans with international financial institutions in addition to providing a certain amount of grants.
“2024 was actually a year in which Türkiye-EU relations were comprehensively discussed, in which areas the need for cooperation was seen, and some positive signs for the normalization and improvement of relations for 2025 began to be determined,” he added.
‘Türkiye entering 2025 with greater hope’
On recent EU reports on Türkiye, Kaymakcı said: “In these reports, it has been determined that Türkiye is a candidate country and has made progress in certain areas, so we are entering 2025 with greater hope.”
Pointing to what he called two very important developments in Turkish-EU relations in 2024, he said: “One was inviting our foreign minister (Hakan Fidan) to the EU informal meeting of foreign ministers after an interval of five years. This meeting was extremely useful. Our foreign minister demonstrated first-hand Türkiye’s determination in the EU membership process, what Türkiye as a candidate country and the EU can do together in the fields of foreign policy, security and defense policy, and how they can make a difference. Likewise, Türkiye has always demonstrated its constructive stance on the Cyprus issue.”
High Level Political Dialogue and Association Council meetings
Kaymakcı said: “Our wish is to open all the blocked dialogues, start the high-level economic dialogue as well as the transportation and energy dialogues as soon as possible. It would benefit both sides to open the way for economic, transportation, energy, political dialogues and the Partnership Council.”
Stating the ongoing dialogues will continue, Kaymakcı said: “There are areas that the EU prioritizes. We’re telling the EU side that we will not accept a transactional approach here. We want all dialogues to be held for the benefit of Türkiye and the EU. We do not favor selectivity in dialogues. Our expectation is that in 2025, disability dialogues will start to be held and all dialogues created after 2019, such as agriculture, trade innovation, health, migration and security, will also be held.”
Kaymakcı added that Cabinet ministers from Türkiye are expected to visit Brussels on various occasions in the coming days, including meetings on Syria and the Israel-Palestine issues, and that the European Political Community summits, to which Türkiye has always been invited, will be held in Albania and Denmark this year.