On 9 March, President of the European Council Charles Michel met with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss the current crisis at the Turkish border and the future relationship between the European Union and Turkey.

The European Union has been supporting Turkey since the migration deal of 2016 – support that has been considered necessary for Turkey in order to control and maintain the situation at the border. However, since recent times, a growing number of refugees and migrants have tried to cross the border with Greece.

After his visit to Greece last week, President Michel met with President Erdoğan to exchange views on the current developments and offered financial support to prevent the situation from worsening. It also remains of utmost importance that the security and safety of the region’s refugees and migrants is invested in.

“We had the opportunity to show how the European Union has implemented financial commitments, the promise to mobilize a total of 6 billion euros to support the refugees who are in Turkey. And it is also an opportunity to recognize the responsibility that has been taken by Turkey about the care of migrants on Turkish soil,” President Michel stated in his official announcement.

“We also had the opportunity to discuss security issues in the region, especially in Syria and above all to support a political solution to bring more stability in Idlib where we have a great humanitarian concern as well as on the border between Turkey and Syria,” he continued.

President Michel sees this as the first step in having a stronger political dialogue with Turkey, both in the short and long term.

Today's meeting with @RTErdogan is an important step in the right direction.
Both Turkey and the EU need to work on the full implementation of the #EUTurkey statement on migration to de-escalate the situation. pic.twitter.com/jdkCXHwzQC