Speaking to reporters in the Black Sea resort of Varna on Monday (26 March), European Council president Donald Tusk said no solutions or compromises had been found between Ankara and the EU.
"If you are asking me if we achieved some solutions or compromises, my answer is no. What I can say that is that I raised all our concerns, as you know it was a long list," he said.
Tusk, along with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Bulgaria's prime minister Boyko Borissov, had met with Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a broader effort to improve fraught relations.
The two sides found common ground on migration, an area of cooperation that appears only to underscore tensions elsewhere. Outstanding internal issues on rule of law, the mass jailing of journalists, Turkish assertive military forays in northern Syria, wider conflicts with Cyprus and the detention of Greek soldiers, remain unresolved.
EU leaders had only last week in a summit in Brussels roundly condemned Turkey's "illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea" and demanded that Ankara respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources.
The same message was repeated in Varna, with Erdogan stating that he had handed over information to the EU leaders to explain Turkey's position that he claims respects international laws.
"Not until the European Union stops being overly critical, in particular certain members of the EU, we will not be able to engage fully in improving the relations," said Erdogan.
Read more: EU-Turkey summit ends with 'no solutions'
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