BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and European Union political leaders have agreed in principle to a text setting out their future relationship that can be endorsed by EU leaders at a summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday.

Referring to a text discussed on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU summit chair said in a statement: “The Commission president has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators’ level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the leaders.”

The text was shared with the 27 other governments of the European Union on Thursday morning. </s> European Council President Donald Tusk on Monday said the latest summit between European Union representatives and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan achieved no concrete solutions or compromises on points of concern.

"If you ask whether we reached any concrete solutions or compromises, the answer is no," said Tusk, following a summit with EU and Turkish representatives in the Bulgarian costal town of Varna.

"But I still hope that will be possible in the future ... Only progress on these issues will allow us to improve the EU-Turkey relations, including the accession process."

President Erdogan was a little more optimistic. "We hope that we have left behind the difficult period in relations between Turkey and the European Union," he said, adding that the two parties had discussed the steps needed to improve EU-Turkey ties.

The summit touched on a range of issues that have caused tension between Turkey and the EU, such as migration, EU membership and Turkey's fight against "terror" groups including Kurdish militants.

Read more: With Turkey’s offensive into Afrin, Erdogan is seeking to kill two birds with one stone

On the EU-Turkey relationship: Tusk said the EU and Turkey needed an open and frank dialogue, and that while the two parties had many common interests there were challenges that needed to be worked on together.

"Our meeting today demonstrated that while our relationship is going through difficult times, in areas where we do cooperate, we cooperate well," Tusk said. "We reconfirm our readiness to keep up the dialogue and conversation and work together to overcome current difficulties with a view to unleashing the potential of our partnership."

Read more: Opinion — EU refugee deal with Turkey full of hypocrisy

On Turkey's EU membership: Following the summit, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said he would like Turkey to be a strategic partner of the EU, while Erdogan warned that leaving Turkey out of an EU enlargement would be a big mistake.

Speaking before the meeting, Erodgan said, "As Turkey, we have been continuing on our way with the goal of full membership [of the EU] despite all the mines that were planted on our path and barriers in front of us. Today, membership in the European Union remains a strategic goal for us."

Read more: Who is Salih Muslim, the Syrian Kurdish leader wanted by Turkey?

On migration: Tusk said the EU was fully committed to continuing support for Syrian refugees living in Turkey. The EU said, as promised, it would allocate another €3 billion ($3.75 billion) to provide support for Syrian refugees in Turkey. "There should be no doubt that the EU will honor its commitments," Juncker said.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said good relations with Turkey were important "to handle the migratory flow, which has created many problems for the Union in recent years."

On the fight against terror: Erdogan said Turkey expected the EU's support rather than criticism in its fight against terrorism. Tusk said both the EU and Turkey wanted to expand cooperation regarding foreign terrorist fighters.

Every evening at 1830 UTC, DW editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> European leaders and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are meeting in Varna, Bulgaria for the EU Summit Meeting, with the provocative Turkish actions and the refugee crisis on the agenda of talks.

 The summit, hosted by Bulgarian prime minister and chairman of the EU, Boyko Borissov, will bring together European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 There is little hope of restoring close relations between the EU and Turkey, as tensions have been high, especially after the Turkish military operations in Afrin and the actions against Greece and Cyprus in the Aegean Sea.

 The Summit is not expected to produce any significant results but might be an important step in trying to normalise their relations. Turkey is demanding the full implementation of the terms agreed in relation to the refugee deal with the EU, meaning the immediate release of 3 billion euros.

 “I believe it is in the interest of the EU for the deal to continue to operate, and therefore for the money to go to the Syrian refugees. The agreement also benefits both the EU and Turkey and the refugees on its territory. I see no reason why Turkey, which was the country that requested in 2016 this agreement with the EU to cancel it now. As long as the EU applies the terms and conditions on its part, Turkey will do the same”, the architect of the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement Gerald Knaus told protothema.gr. </s> European Council President Donald Tusk said the European Union and Britain have agreed on a draft declaration on the future of their political relations after Brexit.

Referring to a text discussed on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Tusk said in a tweet Thursday: "The Commission president has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators' level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the leaders."

Tusk, who chairs meetings of EU leaders, says he has sent the draft political declaration to the U.K.'s 27 European partners.

"The declaration establishes the parameters of an ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership across trade and economic cooperation" and other areas, according to a copy of the document seen by French Press Agency (AFP).

He says the draft declaration still requires "the endorsement of the leaders."

EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels on Sunday to rubber-stamp the declaration and a separate divorce deal.

May will make a statement on Brexit to parliament at 1430 GMT on Thursday, the opposition Labour Party said on Twitter. </s> VARNA, Bulgaria: The EU said it failed to reach any “concrete solutions or compromises” with Turkey in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking to repair their tattered relations. Erdogan held a working dinner with European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in Bulgaria with a litany of issues clouding their discussions.

 These include EU alarm at Erdogan’s crackdown on perceived opponents following a coup attempt in 2016, the arrest of journalists, Turkey’s military operations against Kurds in northern Syria and squabbling over Ankara’s deal to halt the flow of refugees into Europe.

 This has all whipped up an increasingly acrimonious war of words and made Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU — an objective that Erdogan insisted earlier on Monday that Turkey still pursues — appear even more remote. But despite hopes for a breakthrough at the summit in the Black Sea resort of Varna, Tusk said they made little tangible headway.

 “In terms of concrete solutions, we did not reach a concrete compromise today but I still hope it will be possible in the future,” Tusk told a joint news conference.

 But Erdogan struck a more optimistic tone, telling reporters: “We hope that we have left a very difficult period behind in Turkey-EU relations.”

 However he added: “We don’t want rambling or unfair criticisms on sensitive issues like the fight against terror. We expect strong support.”

 Juncker said the summit was one of “mixed feelings but not mixed messages”, adding: “It was a good meeting because as this is the normal principle between big democracies.” — AFP </s> European Council President Donald Tusk has told Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov that his idea of holding the EU -Turkey summit in Varna as an opportunity to re-establish dialogue with Turkey is “great and is highly appreciated by all with whom I have been discussing it,” according to a Bulgarian government statement.

Tusk and Borissov held talks on March 26 ahead of a working dinner that will see, with Borissov as host, a delegation headed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sit down with EU leaders including Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

The working dinner will assess matters of mutual interest and recent developments in Turkey, including the country’s illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea and its involvement in Syria, a European Council statement said.

Erdoğan will be bringing to the table demands including, among other things, the receipt of promised billions of euro in an EU funding package to held Turkey cope with millions of Syrian refugees, and a demand for the re-start of talks on his country’s EU accession.

EU leaders, in turn, want to see Erdoğan’s Ankara lift the state of emergency imposed after the July 2016 attempted coup, and want to see significant progress on human rights, including an end to the widespread crackdown on opposition politicians, academics and journalists that has been continuing during the state of emergency.

Hopes are not high that the Varna EU-Turkey leaders’ meeting will see any significant agreements, though the optimistic view is that it will – perhaps at most – send a signal of continuing dialogue in spite of the deterioration of relations between Ankara and the bloc.

Borissov, whose country currently holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, said that for Bulgaria, it was important to have good relations with its neighbouring country.

“Good relations are also important for the EU because of the overcoming of the migratory flow, which has created many problems for the Union in recent years,” Borissov said.

Two hours before the start of the dinner, Borissov is to hold talks with Erdoğan.

Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev, who is not involved in the Varna event, was at a March 26 ceremony in Sofia to commemorate the Battle of Edirne in the Balkan Wars, and told reporters he hoped that Borissov would raised with Erdoğan the question of compensation for descendants of refugees displaced from Eastern Thrace at the time of the Second Balkan War in 1913.

News agency BTA quoted Radev as telling reporters that seeking a solution to the question about the compensations “is not an anachronism but part of the contemporary European take on history in the spirit and practice of today’s international politics”. “The killing, persecution and ruin of the Thracian Bulgarians is a bitter lesson which we must not forget,” said Radev, who frequently is at loggerheads with Borissov’s government. Radev has been head of state since January 2017 following his election on a ticket backed by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party. </s> Brussels: After three days of arduous negotiations, European Union leaders have broken a deadlock and nominated German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen to become the new president of the bloc's powerful executive arm, the European Commission.

She will take over from Jean-Claude Juncker for the next five years.

European Council president Donald Tusk said in a series of tweets on Tuesday that Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel would take over from him in the (northern) autumn.

Frenchwoman Christine Lagarde was proposed as president of the European Central Bank, while Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell was nominated to become EU foreign policy chief, meaning he would be charged with supervising the Iran nuclear deal, among other duties. </s> Ankara’s Foreign Ministry on Friday said that Thursday’s condemnation by European Union leaders of “Turkey’s continued illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea” was “unacceptable.”

“The statement that was issued contained unacceptable comments against our country that serve the interests of Greece and the Greek Cypriots,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy was quoted by Agence France-Presse as telling reporters.

His comments came a day after a draft statement by the European Council called on Turkey to “cease these actions and respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources in accordance with EU and International Law.”

“The EU has lost its objectivity on the Cyprus issue,” Aksoy claimed, accusing the EU of backing Athens and Nicosia simply because they are members, “without considering whether they are right.”

Aksoy’s comments also came ahead of a key meeting on Monday in Varna, Bulgaria, between EU President Donald Tusk, Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. </s> Britain and European Union political leaders have agreed in principle to a text setting out their future relationship that can be endorsed by EU leaders at a summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday.

Britain and European Union political leaders have agreed in principle to a text setting out their future relationship that can be endorsed by EU leaders at a summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday.

Referring to a text discussed on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU summit chair said in a statement:

"The Commission president has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators' level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the leaders."

The text was shared with the 27 other governments of the European Union on Thursday morning.
European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker conclude talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The parties say they have been unable to agree on human rights issues but pledge to hold more talks.