Turkey will meet with leaders of EU Member States a second time in a month within the framework of finding a solution to the refugee crisis.

Following the Turkey-EU Summit which was held on 29 November 2015, leaders of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Sweden, Austria, Finland and Turkey are getting together today in Brussels in a mini summit in order to find a solution to the refugee crisis. At the meeting entitled “Like-minded countries in the migration issue” where President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker was also present, the leaders are scheduled to find a solution to Europe’s migration crisis as the migration flow is nearing 1 million. It is yet not clear whether France will attend the mini summit.

The notion of “Like-minded countries in the migration issue” was set up before the Turkey-EU Summit which was held on 29 November 2015 as nine Member States under the leadership of Germany had shown their common approach and decision to uphold their responsibilities regarding the “relocation of refugees”. In the mini summit where Turkey has been invited and which will be held before the EU Leaders Summit of 17-18 December 2015, along with the issue of “relocation” of Syrian refugees among EU countries, the issues of border safety and stronger fight against human trafficking will also be discussed. Moreover, the mini summit should also have an effect upon the results of the EU Leaders Summit.

As it is known, Europe which is faced with one of the greatest migration flows in its history had decided to act in coordination with Turkey in tackling the refugee crisis and an intense diplomatic traffic was carried out between the parties in the last months. It is important to note that Europe has shown willingness and enthusiasm to share the burden with Turkey in the refugee crisis and this summit is a significant step towards finding a long lasting solution to this pending issue.  Furthermore, the fact that Turkey has been invited to this summit shows that no solution to the crisis can be found without Turkey.

As “Turkey’s EU Expert”, IKV continues to support the revitalisation of Turkey-EU relations in the 10^th anniversary of the beginning of accession negotiations, and further acknowledging the humanitarian dimension of the refugee crisis, we would like to express our satisfaction in the willingness in both parties to find a common solution to the refugee crisis.

As IKV, we would like to see that this strengthened cooperation leads to further progress and that this activity has also a positive effect upon our country’s accession negotiations’ process.

In that context, we are waiting for the visa liberalisation process to be accelerated; give new impetus to the negotiations process and the implementation of decisions which have been taken at the highest level between the parties in that respect.

As always, we are calling our country to accelerate its reforms and Europe to take steps forward in the accession process.   

Economic Development Foundation