Siim Kallas, Commission Vice-President responsible for transport, visited Turkey to enhance transport cooperation between the EU and Turkey. According to the Commission, developing EU-Turkey transport cooperation is very important due to its strategic geographical position at the crossroad between Europe and Middle East and Caucasus.

The establishment of a roadmap for EU transport relations with Turkey, including regular high-level meetings and the establishment of a structured dialogue with Turkish authorities was the main point of the meeting celebrated between Vice-President Kallas and the Turkish Ministers responsible for Foreign Affairs, EU Affairs and Transport. On the other hand, in September 2011 it was published a declaration by the EU-Turkey Joint Consultative Committee asking for the independence of the Turkish professional organisations.

Turkey has opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2005. The transport chapter is among eight chapters that cannot be opened until Turkey meets its obligation of full, non-discriminatory implementation of the additional protocol to the Association Agreement. In spite of this, cooperation on transport between the EU and Turkey is already quite intensive in particular in the areas of aviation and infrastructure development. The aim of the Vice-President Kallas during his visit was discussing the launching the talks that covered the future of EU-Turkey partnership for all transport modes. He also highlighted as an example the successful dialogue on aviation last April in Istanbul that has been a positive first step towards stronger cooperation.

With regard to this aviation dialogue both sides decided to work together towards the objective of a fully integrated aviation system. In this respect the commonly agreed priorities are to further progress in the field of safety, in particular through the strengthening of Turkey's relationship with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as well as to advance in the implementation of the Single European Sky (SES).