Turkey and the European Union will conduct a high-level economy meeting after a 6-year hiatus. The meeting will be attended by Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek. The Turkey-European Union (EU) High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) Meeting will be held in Brussels tomorrow after a 6-year gap. According to information from the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the decision to establish the HLED mechanism was made during the Turkey-EU Summit on November 29, 2015, to enhance dialogue channels between Turkey and the EU. As part of this, three meetings were held in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Turkey hosted the first and third meetings, with Belgium hosting the second. The revival of the dialogue was decided at the EC General Affairs Council meeting in December 2024, approved at the EU Heads of State and Government Summit, and officially put into effect. In this context, the first meeting of the new period will be held in Brussels on April 3. The opening speeches will be delivered by Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, EU Commissioner for the Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos. The meeting is crucial for accelerating economic relations between the parties and deepening strategic cooperation. The meeting will consist of two main parts. In the first part, Turkey and the EU’s macroeconomic outlooks at the ministerial level, steps that can be taken in competitiveness, and structural reforms will be discussed. Minister Şimşek and Commissioner Dombrovskis will co-chair these sessions. In the second part, leading representatives of the Turkish and EU business communities will meet with ministers and commissioners to evaluate common investment and trade opportunities. Senior executives from European-based financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and European Bank for Development will also attend the meetings. Minister Şimşek will also have bilateral meetings with Dombrovskis and Kos during the meetings to address the future of relations and potential areas of collaboration. Minister Şimşek expressed his satisfaction with the resumption of the meetings after a 6-year hiatus, seeing it as a valuable step towards revitalizing Turkey-EU relations. Highlighting that EU membership is a strategic goal for Turkey, Şimşek mentioned that around 42% of the country’s exports are directed to EU countries, making Turkey the EU’s fifth-largest trading partner. Şimşek emphasized the necessity of updating the trade framework due to increasing protectionist tendencies in global trade, as well as developments in e-commerce, digitization, and green transformation. He noted: “Updating the Customs Union to cover public procurement, services, and the agriculture sector, providing visa facilitation to businessmen and students, and developing joint projects in third countries offer significant opportunities for Turkey-EU cooperation. With competence and capabilities spanning a wide range from defense to energy, agriculture to manufacturing, we are ready for stronger and multi-dimensional cooperation with the EU.”