EU failed to keep its promises, unlike Türkiye: President Erdogan

Türkiye has kept every promise it made to the EU, but the bloc has fulfilled almost none of its promises to Ankara, the Turkish president told in a speech marking the start of parliament's new legislative year.

"If they reverse their injustices, especially the visa imposition, which they use as a veiled sanction on us, they will correct their own mistakes,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, referring to a 2016 promise by the EU under a migrant deal to lift the need for Turkish citizens visiting EU countries to get visas.

“If they do not (reverse these), they will completely lose the right to expect anything from us politically, socially, economically, or militarily,” warned Erdogan in his speech.

Although EU leaders have changed over the years, there has been no change in the “biased attitude of the EU towards Türkiye, which is unfair and incompatible with the principle of pacta sunt servanda,” or agreements must be kept, he added.

“Türkiye has no expectations from the EU, whose door we have been kept waiting at 60 years,” he said.

EU seeks 'constructive relationship' with Türkiye

Following the President Erdogan's speech, an EU official spoke to reporters at the European Commission's daily news briefing.

The EU is ready to engage with Türkiye towards a "constructive relationship for shared prosperity and stability," Ana Pisonero, spokesperson on enlargement, said on Monday.

Pisonero confirmed that the EU "has a strategic interest in continuing with cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with Türkiye and all of its people."

She reaffirmed the bloc's readiness "to engage with Türkiye in order to advance towards a constructive relationship for shared prosperity and stability" to be built on "commitments to human rights, rule of law, international law, and stability for the benefit of all of our citizens."

Following the request of the EU leaders' summit in June, the European Commission is currently working on a "report on the state of play of EU-Türkiye relations" that will be published later this autumn, she added.

Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987, and its accession talks began in 2005 but the Council of the European Union, the EU institution representing member states, decided to suspend negotiations in 2018.

In the years since, talks have been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by certain EU members, for reasons unrelated to its suitability for membership, according to Ankara.