First Vice-President Timmermans and Commissioners Avramopoulos and King received today Ömer Çelik, Minister of EU Affairs of Turkey, a Commission Spokesperson informed CNA.

They held an open, frank and constructive meeting and discussed a range of topics related to EU-Turkey relations, notably migration and the EU-Turkey Statement, terrorism and radicalisation as well as EU support in the context of the visa liberalisation process.

According to the Spokesperson, “above all, the meeting reflected and reaffirmed our mutual commitment to continue working together”.

The First Vice-President and the Commissioners welcomed Turkey`s continued efforts in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement and underlined that the Commission will continue to deliver on its commitment to provide support to the refugees in Turkey from the Facility for Refugees, from which €2.2 billion has already been allocated in 2016. The Commission will report again on the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement next week (7 December).

They also briefly discussed progress on the Visa Liberalisation Roadmap and the Commission reiterated its continued support of this process. The Commission will continue an engaged dialogue with Turkey to find solutions to bring about the legislative and procedural changes needed to fulfil the remaining benchmarks.