EC official: "The EU is keen to develop high-level dialogue with Turkey"

Turkey and the European Union share common interests and concerns in their neighborhood, so their cooperation is essential, said Michael Leigh, director-general of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement, on Tuesday. Both Turkey and the EU have a great deal to offer on a range of issues, Leigh said, citing the recent example of efforts to deal with the crisis in Libya. "We saw in the case of Libya, the effort Turkey made to evacuate Turkish citizens and also some EU citizens," he told reporters following an off-the-record meeting organized by Bogazici University and the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) Foreign Policy Forum. Asked whether Turkey's rising profile in the region will help change some EU countries' negative views of Turkey's EU accession, Leigh said that the Union is well aware of Turkey's role. "The EU is very aware of Turkey's important role in its own neighborhood. We are very keen on developing a high-level political dialogue with Turkey so that we can share our evaluations of developments," he said. But when it comes to establishing official mechanisms to continue that dialogue in order to synchronize EU and Ankara foreign policy decisions, there are obstacles, said former Ambassador Ozdem Sanberk, also speaking to reporters at the meeting. Sanberk said though Turkey insists political cooperation with the EU on the neighborhood policy would be useful, this initiative has not borne fruit due to the asymmetric relationship between Turkey and the Union.