Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has drifted from European Union foreign and security policy.

The EU has determined that relations with Ankara was at their lowest point in decades. Officials said Turkey’s cooperation with Brussels dropped from 80 percent to 30 percent over the last decade.

“We need to improve on the alignment on foreign policy and security policy,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. “It’s never been so low and this is a problem for the European Union. But it is mainly a problem for Turkey.”

At a news conference in Ankara on Dec. 8, Ms. Mogherini cited the use of Turkey by Islamic insurgency groups, particularly Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. She urged Ankara to stop the flow of foreign fighters for ISIL’s wars in Iraq and Syria.

“We discussed the situation of foreign fighters,” Ms. Mogherini said, a former Italian foreign minister, said. “It is one of our common interests we have to face — having good coordination and good strategy to stop the flow.”

Ms. Mogherini arrived in Ankara in one of the highest-ranking EU visits to Turkey in years. She met President Recep Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and urged them to increase cooperation with the EU.

“Turkey knows very well it can play a very relevant role in the region,” Ms. Mogherini said. “If we manage to match the role with the EU. I think we could probably advance the solutions, especially the political solution to the crisis in Syria.”

For the last decade, Turkey has been negotiating to join the EU. But Brussels has increased criticism of Ankara’s record on democracy and human rights.

“The main issues we are focused on are the rule of law and democratic reform with regard to Turkey’s accession process,” Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s rapporteur to Turkey, said on Dec. 10.

  Ahmet Davutoglu, EU, EU to Turkey on out-of-synch security policies: ‘We need to improve’, Federica Mogherini, Recep Erdogan