"Strengthening dialogue between the institutions and European society on one side and the Turkish society on the other side": Margot Wallström, deputy president of the EU Commission, will go on an official visit to Ankara and Istanbul from 7th to 9th March, to coincide with the World Women’s Day. One of the goals of this visit is to "make women’s rights and women’s role in society and at work better known". The Swedish commissioner will take stock of the situation of the negotiations that are under way between the EU and Turkey as a nominee country, by meeting for instance the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Abdullah Gül. At the Bilgi University in Istanbul, Wallström will attend a workshop on women’s rights, then she will go to a social centre that gives shelter to women and children in Tarlabasi. "This centre tries to respond to the needs of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Istanbul. It works for the outcasts of the cities, the victims of rural migration"; it also works for "the refugees of south-eastern Turkey, the Rom and African illegal immigrants".
