EU's Juncker, Tusk to meet Erdoğan on May 25 in Brussels

BRUSSELS - Agence France-Presse

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EU leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Brussels on May 25 the European Commission said, following months of strained relations.

Juncker, who heads the European Commission, and Tusk, who heads the council of 28 EU member states, are due to meet Erdoğan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels.    

"President Jean-Claude Juncker, together with (EU Council) President Donald Tusk, meets Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, in Brussels," Juncker's office said on May 19 in a calendar entry for May 25.
 
Relations between the bloc and Ankara took a hit after the July 2016 failed coup attempt, and worsened further during the campaign for the April 16 referendum on constitutional amendments.

Earlier this month, Erdoğan told Brussels it had no other "option" than to open new "chapters", or policy areas, in Turkey's long-stalled accession talks which began in 2005.      

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu insisted at the time that Turkey was not seeking to become an adversary to the EU, but complained about the approach.
 
He said only 16 policy chapters had been opened out of a total of 35 since the negotiations began, even though Ankara's bid to be a part of the bloc dates back to the 1960s.