The European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi is scheduled to arrive in Türkiye later on Wednesday for a two-day visit. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Varhelyi will meet Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday and they will discuss Türkiye-EU relations, as well as regional and global issues.
Varhelyi last visited Türkiye in September and met Fidan while the two men also held a phone call in December over the conclusion of an EU enlargement summit. Fidan often calls the European Union to shed what he calls "strategic blindness" and improve ties with his country, which has been a candidate for the bloc's membership for decades.
Accession talks have stalled in recent years over a number of disagreements and political roadblocks. Türkiye suggests it has fulfilled most of the criteria for membership. Though the accession process stalled, Türkiye has remained a key economic and defense partner for the 27-member bloc.
Since the start of summer, Ankara and the bloc have been working to rekindle ties, which for many years operated not toward mutual trust and strategic goals but only out of necessity.
Türkiye has the longest history with the union and the most prolonged accession process, which only officially started in 2005 despite the first agreement being signed with the EU’s predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), in 1964. Since then, the process has been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by some EU members. After the presidential and parliamentary elections concluded in May, Brussels shifted its rhetoric from “the importance of cooperation with Türkiye” to “continuing relations on a strategic and forward-looking basis.”
The European Union emphasized its strategic interest in developing a relationship with Türkiye based on cooperation and mutual benefit, saying in a statement in April that it attaches "great importance" to the resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus issue within this context. The statement after an EU summit in Brussels said, "The European Union has a strategic interest in a stable and secure environment in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the development of a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with Türkiye," The EU's approach to the issue drew the ire of Ankara and the Foreign Ministry issued a statement after the summit to that extent. "The conclusions on Türkiye by the Special European Council held in Brussels on April 17-18, 2024, are yet another example of the EU's lack of strategic vision on Türkiye and the global developments," the statement said. The Cyprus issue plagues Türkiye-EU relations as the bloc recognizes only the Greek part of the divided island.
