BRUSSELS - There was a frank and open exchange between the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during today's bilateral meeting in Ankara.
This was revealed by European sources, specifying that on the table particular attention was given to the possibility of building a positive agenda with Ankara, as already established at the previous European Council
In the bilateral, defined as important by the same sources, there was an in-depth exchange on the Istanbul Convention, from which Turkey, the rule of law and human rights emerged, but also on how to strengthen economic ties between the EU and Turkey .
On the migration dossier, President von der Leyen stressed that the 2016 EU-Turkey declaration remains valid as it has brought positive results, referring mainly to the Syrian crisis and the refugees welcomed, the sources indicated, specifying that the EU intends to continue the work with Ankara on this dossier as a strategic subject for the Union.
The presidents of the Commission and of the Council of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, today in Turkey to meet the head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The mission comes as a result of the road map outlined by the European Council 10 days ago, with the aim of relaunching the fluctuating relations between Brussels and Ankara, after the latest tears by the Turkish government on democracy and human rights.
At the center of the talks in Ankara, scheduled for early afternoon, there will be various strategic issues, from migration to regional geopolitical disputes, on the Eastern Mediterranean, Syria and Libya.
The confrontation will focus on the renewal of the controversial agreement of March 2016 on Syrian refugees.
The Erdogan government is asking for additional resources to continue to take care of the reception of over 3.6 million war refugees, after the 6 billion already committed by the EU in recent years.
For its part, Brussels appears willing to focus on development cooperation, given the poor prospects of an immediate return of refugees to their homeland.
At the same time, a discussion is also planned on the 1995 customs union update, long urged by Turkey, and on the resumption of the high-level dialogue, suspended in 2019. Ankara is also pushing for visa liberalization.