SETA Brussels ASBL is organizing a web-panel discussion entitled “Turkish-EU Relations Before the Leaders Summit: Risks and New Opportunities” on Wednesday, 2nd of December 2020 at 17.00 o’clock at Brussels Time.

Recently meetings between EU and Turkey officials were held in Brussels. Very soon, the European Council Leaders’ Summit will take place (10th-11th of December 2020), where EU leaders will discuss, among other things, the EU relations with Turkey. Turkey is considered an essential strategic partner to the European Union regarding topics like migration, economy, security, or counter-terrorism. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and high-level Turkish officials recently mentioned the strategic nature and significance of the EU’s constructive relations. Even if from time to time the ties between both actors are shaped by ongoing political debates and differ in their political, geopolitical, security or economic interests, both actors are aware of the matter of the fact that they benefit from strategic or economic cooperations and are depending on each other to tackle for example common security threats.

During the web-panel, the panelists will talk about Turkey’s EU relations by focusing on the risks and new opportunities the European Union and Turkey might encounter in the near future. The web-panel will be moderated by the SETA Brussels ASBL coordinator Dr. Talha Köse and the panelists in alphabetical order include the Turkey expert Günter Seufert from SWP (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), Laura Batalla Adam, the Secretary-General of the EU-Turkey Forum and Zafer Meşe, the Coordinator of SETA Berlin.