Statement by Commissioner Dombrovskis following the EU-Türkiye High-Level Economic Dialogue

Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis delivered a statement in Istanbul on 2 July following the EU–Türkiye High-Level Economic Dialogue with Mehmet Şimşek, Türkiye's treasury and finance minister, according to the European Commission's Press Corner, which filed the text under reference statement 26/1508.

In the excerpt carried on the wire, the Commissioner opened: “Good afternoon, everyone. It's good to be in Istanbul for today's EU–Türkiye High-Level Economic Dialogue with my counterpart, Minister Şimşek.” The published excerpt notes the standing of the forum before the text breaks off; a second Commission statement, filed the same day under reference 26/1513, is logged as corroborating material.

The Press Corner is the Commission's official channel of record, and the statement stands as the EU side's account of the dialogue. The material supplied does not carry the substance of the discussions, any agreed outcomes, or the Turkish finance ministry's own readout — those remain to be confirmed from the full texts. What is on the record is the convening of the dialogue itself, its location in Istanbul, its date and its principals.

Background

The High-Level Economic Dialogue is one of the structured channels through which Brussels and Ankara manage an economic relationship that has long outrun the political one. Türkiye has been a candidate for EU membership since 1999 and has operated a customs union with the bloc since 1995, but accession negotiations have been effectively frozen since 2018, when EU governments concluded that no further chapters could be opened. Engagement since then has concentrated on trade, the long-mooted modernisation of the customs union, migration cooperation and visa questions.

The EU is Türkiye's largest trading partner, and the economic track has been the most productive strand of the relationship in recent years. Mr Şimşek, a former Merrill Lynch strategist appointed in June 2023, has anchored Ankara's return to more orthodox economic policy after years of unconventional interest-rate management, a shift that Brussels and international investors have broadly welcomed and that has made renewed economic dialogue easier for both sides to sustain.

What comes next

The full text of the Dombrovskis statement, together with the companion statement 26/1513, is filed on the Commission's Press Corner, and any agreed follow-up — including whether the two sides set a timetable for further sessions or address customs union modernisation — would be expected to appear there and in the Turkish treasury's own readout. Neither had been confirmed in the material supplied at the time of writing.