Ursula von der Leyen did not let herself be lured out of her reserve on Monday. The Commission President was asked what she thought of Kemal Kilicdaroglu's announcement that the country would join the EU if he won the presidential election against incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is an important partner, she replied diplomatically, and the high voter turnout is a good sign that Turks want to exercise their democratic rights.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries, based in Brussels.

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They are following the news from Turkey very closely. "We'll have to see what the second round brings." Council President Charles Michel, who appeared in front of the press together with von der Leyen to talk about the upcoming G-7 summit, joined in. It was a rare moment of harmony between the two EU leaders, who mostly try to distinguish themselves at the expense of each other.

Even before the first round, Brussels had refrained from commenting on the Turkish election campaign. Any semblance of external influence should be avoided – especially since Erdogan has consistently accused his rival of being in fact the agent of Western powers. At the same time, it was clear for whom the hearts in Brussels beat for Kilicdaroglu, with whom the hope is that Ankara will abandon its confrontational course, which has caused so much bad blood in relations with the European Union in recent years.

Even at NATO, where there is generally less interest in the domestic politics of the member states, the presidential election has been and is being watched with suspicious eyes. This is about whether Sweden will be able to sit at the table of the alliance as the 32nd member at the next summit. This hope is also linked to the name of the opposition leader.

EU foreign ministers put Turkey on the agenda in the short term

However, the European Union would not be prepared for an election victory for Kilicdaroglu. This was criticised by some foreign ministers when they met informally in Stockholm at the end of last week. One was not able to speak at all, it was said from the internal consultations. The foreign ministers meet every four weeks, but their last intensive exchange on the country was in 2021. It was the same with the heads of government. At the time, they offered Ankara "to establish links in a gradual, proportionate and reversible manner in order to intensify cooperation in a number of areas of common interest". This did not have any significant consequences. They were glad that the tensions between Turkey and Cyprus as well as Greece had eased.

At the next regular Foreign Ministers' Council in Brussels, on Monday next week, Turkey is now to be on the agenda, as the F.A.Z. learned. But that doesn't mean much. While think tanks are already speculating about a "turnaround" in relations with Ankara, about a "new beginning", diplomats do not expect big leaps – even if the preferred candidate wins the election. "We don't have much in our quiver," says one of them. This applies above all to the opposition leader's most ardent wish: the resumption of accession negotiations. "Our main goal is membership in the EU," he said during the election campaign. He wants to do his utmost to achieve this.