Turkey to watch closely as EU leaders meet at summit
Ankara will be closely watching when European Union leaders come together today and tomorrow in Brussels with a heavy agenda.
The leaders' summit will be discussing various issues, including restoring free movement and travel, the progress in the bloc's jointly funded stimulus package and how to move forward on international corporate taxation and the bloc's banking union.
What Turkey is watching will be the summit's messages regarding the tensions in the Mediterranean, financial support for refugees in Turkey and the updating of the Customs Union deal between the two sides.
Turkey has repeatedly called on the EU to take concrete steps on the modernization of the Customs Union and migrant deal.
"Turkey has done more than what fell to itself and it is now the EU's turn to take concrete steps," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over a phone call late on June 21, adding that it is "high time for the implementation of a positive agenda with Turkey."
Erdoğan also highlighted that the ensuring of visa liberalization was a step for which the Turkish people had waited for a long time.
Turkey and the EU in March 2016 signed a refugee deal that aimed to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving the conditions of nearly 4 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Turkey has said falling numbers of migrant crossings show it upheld its part of the deal, but the EU failed to keep its half, including visa liberalization and financial aid for refugees.
EU leaders will discuss financial support for refugees in Turkey at the summit, an EU official said on June 22.
"The president [of the European...
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