Today, Sergey Lagodinsky, Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee (Greens/EFA, DE) met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on the occasion of the Minister’s visit to Brussels. Following the constructive exchange, Sergey Lagodinsky comments:

„I thank the Minister for his visit to Brussels and for his efforts to engage in a positive dialogue with the EU.

As the European Council has stated, the EU is standing ready to launch a positive political EU-Turkey agenda. However, we, Members of the European Parliament, are also very clear: Any move on the positive agenda as offered by the European Council is fully dependent on effective progress in settling the disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as a tangible improvement of the human rights and rule of law situation inside Turkey. I also communicated to the Minister: The European Parliament remains committed to a sincere and constructive cooperation with Turkey based on our common democratic values and principles and for the benefit of all our citizens, in Turkey and in the EU. I hope that our Turkish parliamentary colleagues will soon accept our invitation to resume this cooperation within the framework of our Joint Parliamentary Committee.„

Further ressources:

The future of EU-Turkey relations was also the topic of today’s Plenary speech by Sergey Lagodinsky.

Sergey Lagodinsky remains at your disposal for further information, sound bites and interview requests.