High-level political dialogue between the EU and Turkey will take place in Brussels on Tuesday. The EU’s High Representative Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn will meet with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and EU Minister Omer Celik to discuss EU-Turkey relations and the EU accession process, cooperation in energy, economy, trade, the Customs Union, the fight against terrorism, migration and international issues.
The summer recess-break started for the European Parliament and European Council.
-Last week
The second round of Brexit talks between the U.K. and the EU ended last week with Brussels urging Britain to give more clarity on issues such as citizens’ rights and financial matters. The negotiations will continue for about two years; the U.K. is expected to leave the bloc in the second half of 2019.
Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister participated in the 36th Turkey-EU Joint Advisory Committee in Brussels last week. Celik reiterated that his country wants to be a full member of the European Union and will not be open to any other offer apart from that. Turkey’s accession talks began in 2005. Negotiations hit a stalemate in 2007 because of Turkey’s position on the Cyprus issue. The German and French governments had also opposed the country’s full EU membership. To gain membership, Turkey has to successfully conclude negotiations with the EU over 35 policy chapters that involve reforms and the adoption of European standards.
The European Council introduced restrictions on the export and supply to Libya of inflatable boats and outboard motors to further disrupt the business model of people smugglers and human traffickers.
The Council adopted a set of temporary autonomous trade measures in favor of Ukraine. These measures should enter into force by the end of September and will apply for a period of three years. With these measures, some agricultural and industrial products will be exported to the EU without tariffs.
New figures released by the European Commission last week show that customs authorities detained more than 41 million fake and counterfeit products at the EU's external border in 2016. The goods had a total value of over €670 million.