Our relations with the EU continue without taking any serious steps. The EU always wants something from Turkey. For example, in return for keeping refugees in our country and preventing them from crossing to Europe, a 3-5 billion support agreement was once provided. Or declared to be provided. It was announced that half of the promised support was given. It has nothing to do with meeting the cost of 4 million refugees to our country. It supports some programs directly related to refugees. In other words, the money given from the EU so far has nothing to do with easing the burden of our country. Beyond that, the EU's occasional decisions regarding Turkey do not go beyond distracting our country. Because as long as the words spoken do not turn into concrete steps, they mean nothing more than distracting our country. In short, some meetings are held, these meetings are talked about for hours, but in the end, there is no concrete result for Turkey, so it means nothing more than beating water in a mortar. We express similar evaluations from time to time in our relations with the USA. Of course, these evaluations are not just our findings. It is also reflected in the evaluations of politicians, diplomats and media members who attended and closely followed these meetings.
At this point, I think it would be useful to summarize the decisions taken at the last EU summit. Because the concrete decisions from the last summit were once again postponed, it would not be wrong to say that what was done did not go beyond beating water in the air.
It is possible to summarize the decisions taken as follows:
-Financial support: The Commission's proposal for financial support to countries hosting Syrians was accepted. The EU commission will prepare its legal proposal. In this context, 3 billion Euros will be transferred to Turkey until 2024. It should be kept in mind that this money is not directly aimed at meeting the expenditures of Turkey, but is given as a support for some projects accepted by the EU.
-Strategic interest: It was reiterated that it is in the strategic interest of the EU to develop cooperative relations with Turkey. Well, in order to protect the interests of which country, Turkey is kept at the door all the time. I think it is in the strategic interest of the EU that Turkey is not accepted as a member.
-Eastern Mediterranean: Satisfaction with de-escalation was expressed and asked to continue. Although Turkey is not responsible for the continuation of this tension, such a statement inevitably means nothing more than the support given to Greece and the Greek Cypriot part.
-Customs Union: The EU gives priority to overcoming the problems in the current agreement. Turkey has been demanding the renewal of the Customs Union agreement for a long time in order to eliminate the existing problems. It is not possible to understand the priority given to the elimination of existing problems while ignoring this demand.
-High Level Dialogue: Preparations are underway for holding high-level dialogue meetings on issues such as health, climate crisis and the fight against terrorism.
While these announced decisions were rightfully given in the media under the headings "EU did not take any concrete steps", "EU beat water in the air again", the statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the aforementioned decisions were announced, "The decisions adopted under the title of Turkey are far from including the expected and necessary steps," it was stated.
In short, it seems that what is said by the EU does not make much sense. Application is important. In practice, there is not much room for Turkey. When this happens, the question "Why do we continue to wait at the door of this hypocritical EU?" awaits an answer.