MADRID, 1 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has shown this Tuesday that he is willing to resume the dialogue between Turkey and the European Union, as well as the talks with a view to modernizing the customs union and also the accession negotiations.
This has been made known during a call to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to whom Erdogan has also told him that it is necessary to strengthen relations between the two countries, while they have also talked about the war in Ukraine, according to the agency. Anatolian news.
To strengthen their bilateral relationship, the Turkish president has asked Scholz for Germany to return “to its neutral position” within the framework of Turkish-Greek diplomatic ties, thus referring to his recent statements, in which he defended the sovereignty of Athens against to “Turkish attacks”.
Scholz assured, after a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Hellenic country, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, that it was not “acceptable” for one NATO partner to question another, a clear allusion to the dispute that both countries share in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Although the situation in the eastern Mediterranean has improved in recent months and the EU’s assessment of Turkey’s attitude is positive, the leaders continue to express their reluctance regarding the situation in Cyprus and internal rule of law issues Turkey.
The Twenty-seven have previously focused on the solution to the conflict in Cyprus and regretted that the contacts in Geneva sponsored by the United Nations have not served to resume negotiations. Likewise, they brand the situation of fundamental rights as a “main concern” in bilateral relations.
Among the most recent disagreements, the European Union expressed in October its concern about the recent law approved in Turkey against disinformation that contemplates penalties of up to three years in prison for the dissemination of “false news”.
Turkey was named an official EU candidate in 1999, but membership negotiations are frozen. Last month, a European Commission report criticized Ankara for not making progress towards its goal of joining the bloc, citing “serious deficiencies in the functioning of democratic institutions”, according to DPA.
