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The beginning of a unique experience for the EU. Never before had a member opted out of the EU. Some view it as a catastrophy for Europe now not only reduced in dimension but also prone to further dismemberement. Some now see a disunited UK where Scotland, Northern Ireland having voted for staying in the EU may now wish to move out of the UK. The division is even greater now between younger and older generations, cities and rural areas, elites and segments of the population who feel rejected.

The rise of nationalism, populistic policies seems to spread all over the world with economic, social and political consequences which will affect all of us.

EU envoy to Turkey’s resignment came as a surprise to all, diplomatic circles included. Ambassador Haber has a BA and MA in economics from  Munih University. He is a career diplomat and held posts in German embassies in Paris, Moscow and Manila. He was the German Ambassador in Beirut before being posted in Ankara in 2015. Besides being fluent in English, French, Russian and Turkish, he has conversational knowledge of Arabic and workşng knowledge of Farsi.

Europe Day commemorates 9 May 1950, when the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe to help maintain peaceful relations between European countries. This proposal, known as the ‘Schuman declaration’, is considered to be the act that created what is now the European Union. Europe Day” is therefore a celebration of peace and unity in Europe. Every year in May, the Turkey EU Association (TURABDER) also known as the European Movement -Turkey organizes a seminar to mark the day and raise awareness about the EU. This year Europe day was commemorated on May 10 at the Elite World Hotel in Istanbul. The news of this activity was on Channel NTV. 

Program

Registration:    (9:00 -9:15)

Introduction:   (9:15 – 9:20) Ela  TAŞKENT (General Secretary of                                                                      Turabder )

Keynote Speaker: (9:20 – 9:45) Ambassador Rauf Engin SOYSAL :                                          Undersecretary of the Ministry of EU Affairs

 

First Session:  (9:45 – 11:00) Current Evaluation of Relations between Turkey &                                        the EU

Ilter TURAN: Bilgi University

         Yaprak ALP: Deputy Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,                                  Department of EU Affairs

         Özdem SANBERK : President of USAK (International Strategic                                                       Research Organization)

         Mustafa KUTLAY: USAK Expert on EU Affairs

Moderator:  Gül G. TURAN : Turabder’s President

COFFEE BREAK:  11:00 – 11:15

Second Session: (11:15 – 13:00) The EU & Women’s Participation in Social and                    Political life 

         Meral TAMER: Journalist

         Gulseren ONANÇ: Member of the CHP

         Deniz Şenol SERT: Özyeğin University

Moderator:  Rana Birden ÇORBACIOĞLU Executive Committee Member of                             Turabder

LUNCH :  13:00 – 14:30

Third Session: (14:30-16:00) Turkey – EU Relations: A Communication Perspective

         Pelin KOCAALP: General Manager at Hill+Knowlton Strategies -Turkey

         Bekir AGIRDIR: Konda

         Volkan İKİLER: Member of the Executive Committee of the            Association of   Advertising Agencies.

         Ayşegül MOLU: President of the Foundation of Advertising Agencies

Moderator:   Uğur Cevdet Panayıcı:  Member of TURABDER

 

Tuesday 26 April

The Committee of the Parties to the Istanbul Convention held its third meeting on 26 April in Strasbourg. On this occasion, the Committee had an exchange of views with Ms Feride Acar, the President of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), and Mr Sergiy Kyslytsya, Chairperson of the Council of Europe Gender Equality Commission (GEC).

Enlargement: Pro-EU ticket receives landslide support in Serbian elections

According to preliminary results, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party won 51% of votes at the parliamentary elections on Sunday giving Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić the green light to pursue a pro-EU political course. Vučić has only been Prime Minister since 2014 but called these snap elections to have a strong mandate for potentially hard and unpopular reforms necessary to become an EU Member State. Serbia formally started the first stages of EU membership talks in December but faces some significant hurdles, including Croatian opposition. The EU has also stated that there will be no enlargement of the bloc until 2020. Lastly, the election also saw the return of the far-right, anti-EU Radical party with about 7% of the vote, clearing the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

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First round of Austrian presidential elections sees rise of far-right party

The first round of the Austrian presidential elections saw the candidates of the two governing parties knocked-out of the running for President. Nortbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) came a clear first with 36% of the vote, according to preliminary results. His likely opponent in the May 22presidential elections will be Alexander van der Bellen, backed by the Greens,  who came second with 20% of the vote. The hope is that anti-FPO Austria will join forces and back van der Bellen, as happened in the French regional election last November. Chancellor Werner Faymann’s Social Democrats and their centre-right caltiion partners the People’s Party both only garnered 11% of the vote. The president is largely a symbolic role but technically has the power to dissolve and reject a government.

Austria’s rightward tendencies were also captured in a study that showed that 75% of Austrians support more border controls. These results will be used by the new Austrian Interior Minister as he goes to South Tyrol to put pressure on Rome an Brussels to increase border controls in the Brenner pass.

Ministry for EU Affairs organised a Civil Society Dialogue Meeting on “Turkey’s EU Accession Process” on 28 April 2016 in Hatay with the participation of Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ambassador Volkan Bozkır. More than 1500 representatives of civil society organizations, local administrations, business world and universities attended the meeting.

PRESS RELEASE
144/16
18/03/2016
EU-Turkey statement, 18 March 2016
Today the Members of the European Council met with their Turkish counterpart. This was the third meeting since November 2015 dedicated to deepening Turkey-EU relations as well as addressing the migration crisis.The Members of the European Council expressed their deepest condolences to the people of Turkey following the bomb attack in Ankara on Sunday. They strongly condemned this heinous act and reiterated their continued support to fight terrorism in all its forms.
Turkey and the European Union reconfirmed their commitment to the implementation of their joint action plan activated on 29 November 2015. Much progress has been achieved already, including Turkey’s opening of its labour market to Syrians under temporary protection, the introduction of new visa requirements for Syrians and other nationalities, stepped up security efforts by the Turkish coast guard and police and enhanced information sharing. Moreover, the European Union has begun disbursing the 3 billion euro of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey for concrete projects and work has advanced on visa liberalisation and in the accession talks, including the opening of Chapter 17 last December.

On 7 March 2016, Turkey furthermore agreed to accept the rapid return of all migrants not in need of international protection crossing from Turkey into Greece and to take back all irregular migrants intercepted in Turkish waters. Turkey and the EU also agreed to continue stepping up measures against migrant smugglers and welcomed the establishment of the NATO activity on the Aegean Sea. At the same time Turkey and the EU recognise that further, swift and determined efforts are needed. In order to break the business model of the smugglers and to offer migrants an alternative to putting their lives at risk, the EU and Turkey today decided to end the irregular migration from Turkey to the EU. In order to achieve this goal, they agreed on the following additional action points:
1) All new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into Greek islands as from 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey. This will take place in full accordance with EU and international law, thus excluding any kind of collective expulsion. All migrants will be protected in accordance with the relevant international standards and in respect of the principle of non-refoulement. It will be a temporary and extraordinary measure which is necessary to end the human suffering and restore public order. Migrants arriving in the Greek islands will be duly registered and any application for asylum will be processed individually by the Greek authorities in accordance with the Asylum Procedures Directive, in cooperation with UNHCR. Migrants not applying for asylum or whose application has been found unfounded or inadmissible in accordance with the said directive will be returned to Turkey. Turkey and Greece, assisted by EU institutions and agencies, will take the necessary steps and agree any necessary bilateral arrangements, including the presence of Turkish officials on Greek islands and Greek officials in Turkey as from 20 March 2016, to ensure liaison and thereby facilitate the smooth functioning of these arrangements. The costs of the return operations of irregular migrants will be covered by the EU.
2) For every Syrian being returned to Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU taking into account the UN Vulnerability Criteria. A mechanism will be established, with the assistance of the Commission, EU agencies and other Member States, as well as the UNHCR, to ensure that this principle will be implemented as from the same day the returns start. Priority will be given to migrants who have not previously entered or tried to enter the EU irregularly. On the EU side, resettlement under this mechanism will take place, in the first instance, by honouring the commitments taken by Member States in the conclusions of Representatives of the Governments of Member States meeting within the Council on 20 July 2015, of which 18.000 places for resettlement remain. Any further need for resettlement will be carried out through a similar voluntary arrangement up to a limit of an additional 54.000 persons. The Members of the European Council welcome the Commission’s intention to propose an amendment to the relocation decision of 22 September 2015 to allow for any resettlement commitment undertaken in the framework of this arrangement to be offset from non-allocated places under the decision. Should these arrangements not meet the objective of ending the irregular migration and the number of returns come close to the numbers provided for above, this mechanism will be reviewed. Should the number of returns exceed the numbers provided for above, this mechanism will be discontinued.
3) Turkey will take any necessary measures to prevent new sea or land routes for illegal migration opening from Turkey to the EU, and will cooperate with neighbouring states as well as the EU to this effect.
4) Once irregular crossings between Turkey and the EU are ending or at least have been substantially and sustainably reduced, a Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme will be activated. EU Member States will contribute on a voluntary basis to this scheme.
5) The fulfilment of the visa liberalisation roadmap will be accelerated vis-à-vis all participating Member States with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016, provided that all benchmarks have been met. To this end Turkey will take the necessary steps to fulfil the remaining requirements to allow the Commission to make, following the required assessment of compliance with the benchmarks, an appropriate proposal by the end of April on the basis of which the European Parliament and the Council can make a final decision.
6) The EU, in close cooperation with Turkey, will further speed up the disbursement of the initially allocated 3 billion euros under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey and ensure funding of further projects for persons under temporary protection identified with swift input from Turkey before the end of March. A first list of concrete projects for refugees, notably in the field of health, education, infrastructure, food and other living costs, that can be swiftly financed from the Facility, will be jointly identified within a week. Once these resources are about to be used to the full, and provided the above commitments are met, the EU will mobilise additional funding for the Facility of an additional 3 billion euro up to the end of 2018.
7) The EU and Turkey welcomed the ongoing work on the upgrading of the Customs Union.
8) The EU and Turkey reconfirmed their commitment to re-energise the accession process as set out in their joint statement of 29 November 2015. They welcomed the opening of Chapter 17 on 14 December 2015 and decided, as a next step, to open
Chapter 33 during the Netherlands presidency. They welcomed that the Commission will put forward a proposal to this effect in April. Preparatory work for the opening of other Chapters will continue at an accelerated pace without prejudice to Member States’ positions in accordance with the existing rules.
9) The EU and its Member States will work with Turkey in any joint endeavour to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria, in particular in certain areas near the Turkish border which would allow for the local population and refugees to live in areas which will be more safe.
All these elements will be taken forward in parallel and monitored jointly on a monthly basis.
The EU and Turkey decided to meet again as necessary in accordance with the joint statement of 29 November 2015.

Source:  http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18-eu-turkey-statement/

Minister Bozkır will meet with Harlem Désir, French Secretary of State for European Affairs at a working lunch and with the Members and Chair of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs Committee of the Senate and National Assembly, and address the members of the French Parliament.
Minister Bozkır will also meet with the French businessmen at a dinner hosted by the Turkish Embassy in Paris. Harlem Désir, French Secretary of State for European Affairs will also attend the dinner.
After his Paris visit, Minister Bozkır will visit Brussels to hold official talks with European Commissioners. In Brussels, Minister Bozkır will meet with Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission’s Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, and with Neven Mimica, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development.
Minister Bozkır will also meet with Turkish citizens living in Belgium at a meeting held by the Belgium Office of the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD)

 

1. Following their meeting with Prime Minister Davutoğlu, the EU Heads of State or Government addressed the migration situation, in particular as regards the Western Balkans route. They welcomed their discussion with the Turkish Prime Minister on EU-Turkey relations and on the progress made in the implementation of the Joint Action Plan. Turkey confirmed its commitment in implementing the bilateral Greek-Turkish readmission agreement to accept the rapid return of all migrants not in need of international protection crossing from Turkey into Greece and to take back all irregular migrants apprehended on Turkish waters.

The Heads of State or Government agreed that bold moves were needed to close down people smuggling routes, to break the business model of the smugglers, to protect our external borders and to end the migration crisis in Europe. We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe.

That is why they underlined the importance of the NATO activity in the Aegean Sea that became operational today. They called on all members of NATO to support it actively. They warmly welcomed the additional proposals made today by Turkey to address the migration issue. They agreed to work on the basis of the principles they contain:

• to return all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into the Greek islands with the costs covered by the EU;
• to resettle, for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian from Turkey to the EU Member States, within the framework of the existing commitments;
• to accelerate the implementation of the visa liberalization roadmap with all Member States with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016;
• to speed up the disbursement of the initially allocated 3 billion euros to ensure funding of a first set of projects before the end of March and decide on additional funding for the Refugee Facility for Syrians;
• to prepare for the decision on the opening of new chapters in the accession negotiations as soon as possible, building on the October 2015 European Council conclusions;
• to work with Turkey in any joint endeavour to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria which would allow for the local population and refugees to live in areas which will be more safe.

The President of the European Council will take forward these proposals and work out the details with the Turkish side before the March European Council. This work will respect European and international law.

The EU Heads of State or Government also discussed with the Turkish Prime Minister the situation of the media in Turkey.

2. Heads of State or Government further recalled that the European Council, at its meeting on 18-19 February, decided to get back to a situation where all Members of the Schengen area fully apply the Schengen Borders Code, while taking into account the specificities of the maritime borders, and to end the wave-through approach. Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end.

3. In order to make this sustainable, action is required along the following lines:

a) stand by Greece, in this difficult moment and do our utmost to help manage the situation that has arisen as a consequence of this development. This is a collective EU responsibility requiring fast and efficient mobilisation of all available EU means and resources and of Member States’ contributions;

b) provide an immediate and effective response to the very difficult humanitarian situation which is rapidly developing on the ground. Emergency support will be provided urgently by the Commission, in close cooperation with Greece, other Member States and non-governmental organisations on the basis of an assessment, by the Commission and Greece, of the needs and a contingency and response plan. In this context, Heads of State or Government welcome the Commission proposal on the provision of emergency support within the EU  and call on the Council to adopt it before the March European Council, thus expanding the range of financial instruments that can be used; they invite the budgetary authority to take any necessary follow-up measures;

c) provide further assistance to Greece in managing the external borders, including those with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, and ensuring the proper functioning of hotspots, with 100% identification, registration and security checks, and the provision of sufficient reception capacities. Frontex will launch an additional call for national guest officers as soon as possible and all Member States should respond in full by 1 April at the latest. Europol will rapidly deploy guest officers in all hotspots to reinforce security checks and support the Greek authorities in the fight against smugglers;

d) assist Greece in ensuring comprehensive, large scale and fast-track returns to Turkey of all irregular migrants not in need of international protection, building on the Greece-Turkey readmission agreement and, from 1 June, the EU-Turkey readmission agreement;

e) accelerate substantially the implementation of relocation to alleviate the heavy burden that presently weighs on Greece. EASO will launch a further call for national expertise to support the Greek asylum system and all Member States should respond rapidly and in full. Member States are also invited to provide more places for relocation as a matter of urgency. The Commission will report on a monthly basis  to the Council on the implementation of relocation commitments;

f) continue to cooperate closely with the non-EU countries of the Western Balkans and provide any necessary assistance;

g) implement the existing resettlement commitments and continue work on a credible voluntary humanitarian admission programme with Turkey;

h) take any necessary measures immediately in respect of any new routes opening up, and step up the fight against smugglers;

i) take forward, as a matter of priority, all the elements of the Commission roadmap on getting “back to Schengen”, so as to end temporary internal border controls and re-establish the normal functioning of the Schengen area before the end of the year.

This document does not establish any new commitments on Member States as far as relocation and resettlement is concerned.

Upon his return from Brussels David Cameron met with his cabinet members on Saturday to discuss the UK’s new special status in the EU after which he gave a press review where he declared that the UK would decide on June 23 via a referendum whether the UK  was stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. He also said that he was personally for a UK within the EU and that those who were not of the same view could campaign for an EU exit if they wished so. Secretary of Justice Michael Gove, nOther Ireland Secretary Theresa Vlliers, Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith, Secretary of Culture John Wittingdale and Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling were the  members of the cabinet who decided to campaign for an EU exit.