In a statement, the EU\u2019s General Affairs Council commended Turkey’s significant efforts in hosting and addressing their needs.<\/p>\n
The move came as the council gathered in Luxembourg and released a statement on the EU membership process of six countries including Turkey, Montenegro and Serbia.<\/p>\n
It described Turkey as a \u201ckey partner\u201d and reaffirmed \u201cthe importance it attaches to EU relations with Turkey\u201d.<\/p>\n
The council \u201cremains committed to maintaining an open and frank dialogue, to addressing common challenges and to cooperating in essential areas of joint interest such as migration, counterterrorism, energy, transport, the economy and trade\u201d, the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe continued implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, which reduces irregular and dangerous crossings [by migrants] and saves lives in the Aegean Sea, is in the interest of both sides and remains crucial,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Turkey hosts nearly 3.6 million Syrian refugees, according to a refugee association’s data.<\/p>\n
In March 2016, Turkey and the EU signed a deal aimed at stemming the irregular migration flow through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers. The deal also aimed to improve conditions for Syrian refugees in Turkey.<\/p>\n
The statement said Turkey\u2019s \u201cconstructive cooperation\u201d on the migration crisis has “delivered clear results\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe council reiterates that continued implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement and continued support for partners along the Western Balkans route is required,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EU will continue its financial support and technical assistance to strengthen cooperation in this field, including through the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the council also underlined the \u201ccontinued need to focus\u201d on the rule of law and fundamental rights in Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurkey has been moving further away from the European Union,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurkey’s accession negotiations have therefore effectively come to a standstill and no further chapters can be considered for opening or closing and no further work towards the modernization of the EU-Turkey Customs Union is foreseen,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Turkey applied for membership in the European Economic Community, a precursor to the EU, in 1987. It became eligible for EU membership in 1997 and accession talks began in 2005.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 10)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The European Union on Tuesday praised Turkey for hosting more than 3.5 million refugees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,1,118,14],"tags":[78002,78003],"class_list":["post-61217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-eus-general-affairs-council","tag-european-economic-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}