No: 157, 17 May 2015

The 53rd Meeting of the Turkey-EU Association Council will be held on 18 May 2015 in Brussels with the participation of H.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey and H.E. Volkan Bozkır, Minister for EU Affairs & Chief Negotiator of the Republic of Turkey.

Before the Meeting, H.E. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and H.E. EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkır will attend an unofficial dinner together with H.E. Edgar Rinkevics, Foreign Minister of Latvia which holds the EU Term Presidency, H.E. Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, H.E. Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, and they will discuss Turkey-EU relations as well as current regional developments.

At the 53rd Meeting of the Association Council, which is the highest decision making body between Turkey and the EU, the developments which have taken place concerning the accession process of Turkey within one year since the previous meeting of the Association Council as well as all aspects of Turkey-EU relations will be reviewed. On this occasion, our expectations for accelerating the accession process by removing the obstacles created for political purposes and by opening new chapters for negotiations will be reminded to the EU.

During the meeting, the sides will also exchange views on different aspects regarding the functioning of the Customs Union and review the efforts in the field of harmonization with the EU acquis.