Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu paid a visit to Brussels on 30 June 2016 to participate in the Intergovernmental Conference on Accession with the Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik and the Minister of Finance Naci Ağbal. In the meeting, Chapter 33 on “Financial and Budgetary Provisions” was opened. This chapter is the 16th chapter opened in the accession negotiations. On the other hand, visa liberalization roadmap was discussed in the meeting held with the First Vice-President of the European Commission.

Speaking at the joint press conference, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated that thanks to the implementation of the agreement between Turkey and the EU, considerable success has been achieved in the fight against irregular migration and the number of irregular crossings has substantially reduced. Pointing out that Turkey has fulfilled almost all criteria in the visa liberalization roadmap, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu said that EU is expected to keep its promises on visa liberalization. He also expressed his belief that further progress would be achieved in the negotiations during Slovakia’s Presidency of the EU Council. Referring to the terrorist attack in İstanbul, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu underlined the importance of making no distinction between terrorist organizations.