The Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, DE) issued the following statement on the postponement of the 80th EU-Turkey JPC meeting, initially scheduled to take place in Kayseri, Turkey, on 20-21 September 2022:
"This week, a bilateral meeting of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee was planned to take place in Kayseri Turkey, following the invitation by our Turkish partners. Unfortunately, last week, the Turkish colleagues informed us that the meeting would be postponed.
The postponement of the meeting at very short notice is disappointing to us. It is especially regretful since the meeting would have taken place at an important moment of European history, which can become an essential juncture in our bilateral relationship.
The delegation of the European Parliament would have been represented by a diverse and strong group of Members, including the Chair, a vice-Chair of the delegation and the Standing Rapporteur of the European Parliament on Turkey, with MEPs coming from five member states and representing five leading political groups.
Apart from the status of Turkey's EU accession process, the Joint Parliamentary Committee planned to discuss foreign policy issues, including security policy cooperation as well as questions of democracy and rule of law.
We hope that a formal bilateral meeting will be possible in the near future.In this regard, I am in touch with my Turkish counterpart co-Chair İsmail Emrah Karayel. In parallel, we will continue our dialogue with the civil society of Turkey. In fact, this dialogue never ceased, and even intensified during this week despite the cancellation of the Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting.
Finally, we emphasize the importance of our cooperative work as parliamentarians. The function of our work is essential and neither a substitute nor an appendix to the dialogue between the Turkish government and the European Commission or member states. The European Parliament is a political branch of the EU on an equal footing. Inter-parliamentary dialogue is an essential independent channel of communication between elected representatives of our citizens. This channel shall continue to operate in its independent and constructive mode."
Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP
