EU heads of state or government meet with Turkey

EU News 356/2015

Brussels, 29/11/2015

On 29 November 2015, EU heads of state or government held a meeting with Turkey. The meeting marked an important step in developing EU-Turkey relations and contributing to managing the migration crisis.

European Council President Donald Tusk chaired the meeting, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu represented Turkey.

The EU and Turkey agreed to re-energise Turkey's accession process to the European Union. High-level dialogue between both parties will be reinforced through more frequent and structured meetings including the organisation of summits twice a year.

Regular summits will provide a platform to assess the development of Turkey-EU relations and discuss international issues.

A Joint Action Plan has been adopted at the meeting to deal with the refugee crisis created by the situation in Syria. The EU and its member states will increase their cooperation with Turkey and step up their political and financial engagement substantially.

EU-Turkey joint action plan - European Commission - factsheet

The EU is committed to provide an initial €3 billion euro of additional resources to Turkey to help it cope with the high numbers of Syrian refugees currently in the country.

With the implementation of the action plan, both sides will step up their active cooperation on migrants who are not in need of international protection:

• preventing travel to Turkey and the EU

• ensuring the application of the established bilateral readmission provisions

• swiftly returning them to their countries of origin

 

Source and additional information:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2015/11/29/

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