AER President Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli, together with Laurent of Belgium, her special advisor and Mr Mathieu Mori, AER Secretary General met with Mr Guy Verhofstadt, member of the European Parliament and Leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. AER is meeting with EU leaders to strengthen cooperation on cultural and social matters with European regions, Turkey and the muslim community.

Representing regions outside of the EU borders and promoting multi-level governance, AER is in a unique position to support its EU institutional partners in their efforts to cooperate with non-EU regions. The work done by the AER delegation in Ankara, made up of AER member regions but also representatives from the institutions (Committee of the Regions and European Parliament) and partner organisation (Association of European Border Regions and German Marshall Fund of the Unites States) has proven highly valuable for the different partners and was an opportunity to continue to build the open dialogue with Turkey and to show the good will of European partners.