i have a busy agenda today i would like to recall that we have had a difficult history in negotiations with turkey starting already with the mandate in two thousand and two but recently there have been very many positive steps
last year the council conclusion on illegal immigration urged accelerating negotiations with turkey and also last year my predecessor mr barrot visited turkey together with the swedish minister billström
there was a joint statement at that time moving forward
since then there has been progress
there have been several talks over the winter and we are now very close to an agreement in negotiations on the readmission agreement with turkey
the commission is confident that the agreed parts of the text are balanced and that they reflect our needs while addressing turkey's concerns
we are working in order to finalise this text as soon as possible and we are in constant contact with the turkish authorities
the aim is to finalise this and to report on the outcome of the negotiations during the june council
we will keep parliament fully informed as it will be asked to grant its consent for conclusion once it is concluded
on the frontex arrangement there is no formal linkage between the negotiation of the working arrangement and the eu-turkey readmission agreement
having said that the commission is taking the necessary steps in order to ensure overall coherence in addressing similar issues in both acts
the commission is not in a position to comment on the delimitation of the territory or the borders of a given member state as these issues are the sole responsibility of the member states and the applicable provisions of international law
we would like to encourage frontex and the host member state to ensure that adequate information is provided to neighbouring third countries on the deployment of assets such as airborne means close to the borders before a joint operation is launched
