Terrorism is set to top the agenda when Turkey and the European Union meet Tuesday in Istanbul for a political dialogue meeting, the first such ministerial gathering since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009.
Turkey insists on the extradition of senior leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, from Europe.
"Along with so many other topics, we will also raise the issue of cooperation on terrorism. It’s not a secret that cooperation in this field, especially when it comes to the extradition of terrorists, is not at a satisfactory level," a diplomatic source told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeated the government’s complaints during a state visit to Serbia, saying, "The EU must extradite the terrorist organization's leaders."
The PKK is officially recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the United States.
In addition to terrorism, other regional and international issues will be discussed at the Turkey-EU meeting to be attended by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s chief negotiator for EU talks, Egemen Bağış, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, and EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele.
Since 1999, when Turkey was awarded candidacy status, the Turkey-EU meeting has taken place once under each EU term presidency. Turkish-EU political dialogue ministerial level meetings have replaced the so-called Troika, or tripartite, meetings with the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.
Troika meetings used to include the EU Commission, the term president and the incoming president but under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force on Dec. 1, 2009, that structure was changed to strengthen the powers of the EU and its institutions – especially in foreign policy areas, according to diplomatic sources.
Under the current system the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy attends the meetings to bolster coordination and bears the title of vice president of the EU Commission.
Article 27 of the Lisbon Treaty refers to the tasks of the high commissioner and the issue of political dialogue as follows: “The High Representative shall represent the Union for matters relating to the common foreign and security policy. He shall conduct political dialogue with third parties on the Union’s behalf and shall express the Union’s position in international organizations and at international conferences.”
As the Troika format has now been abolished, the high commissioner will represent the EU instead of the term president. As it is not always possible for the high commissioner to chair every EU meeting, commissioners will be able to delegate their power. Ashton, however, will be able to chair the Istanbul meeting.
Diplomatic sources said the political dialogue meetings have no difference from the Troika talks in terms of the content and the matters discussed, but take place at various levels.
The first Turkish-EU meeting occurred in February at the level of political director and deputy undersecretary.
