EU's Juncker, Tusk to meet Erdoğan on May 25 in Brussels
EU leaders Jean-Claude
Juncker and Donald Tusk will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Brussels on May 25 the European
Commission said, following months of strained relations.
Juncker, who heads the European Commission, and Tusk, who
heads the council of 28 EU member states, are due to meet Erdoğan on the
sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels.
"President Jean-Claude Juncker, together with (EU
Council) President Donald Tusk, meets Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of
Turkey, in Brussels," Juncker's office said on May 19 in a calendar entry
for May 25.
Relations between the bloc and Ankara took a hit after the July 2016 failed coup
attempt, and worsened further during the campaign for the April 16 referendum
on constitutional amendments.
Earlier this month, Erdoğan told Brussels it had no other
"option" than to open new "chapters", or policy areas, in
Turkey's long-stalled accession talks which began in 2005.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu insisted at the time that
Turkey was not seeking to become an adversary to the EU, but complained about
the approach.
He said only 16 policy chapters had been opened out of a
total of 35 since the negotiations began, even though Ankara's bid to be a part
of the bloc dates back to the 1960s.