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EU foreign policy chief urges Turkey to respond to EU call

Xinhua, March 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkey needs to respond to the call from the European Union (EU) side as a candidate country, said the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday ahead of an EU-Turkey summit which was viewed by Ankara as a good chance to accelerate its accession process to the bloc.

There is a need for Turkey to respect "the highest standards" of the EU's core values, Mogherini told reporters upon her arrival at the summit.

"Our relationship with Turkey is a complex one," Mogherini said.

"We are working together with Turkey as a candidate country and here we have internal developments we are following very closely from the European Union's side," she noted.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said earlier that besides the migrant crisis, the EU-Turkey summit could also focus on the Turkish accession process to the EU.

"It will be a success story and a turning point in our relations in a positive way," Davutoglu told reporters upon arriving at the meeting with his European counterparts.

The EU and Turkey last November reached an action plan which aimed to stem the massive migrant flows, with Brussels promising to distribute three billion euros (3.29 billion U.S. dollars) to Ankara to provide assistance to the refugees.

Ankara was reported to have complained about the EU's slowness in allocating the money and Davutoglu was reportedly urged by the Turkish president to "bring back the three billion euros."

Mogherini on Monday warned that the EU was allocating the funds "not to the government of Turkey, but to projects to support refugees and their lives." Endit