The EU has been in the limelight recently due to the new nominations for the top posts. Herman Van Rompuy has been replaced by a surprise outsider -- former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Catherine Ashton has also been replaced by almost a neophyte in politics, the young and charismatic former Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Federica Mogherini.The ongoing negotiations with the EU have shown that there is a real necessity to establish a proactive foreign policy for Europe. The election of Donald Tusk is an important sign that the EU is not going to let Ukraine go. On the other hand, there is no real political will to confront Russia other than in mild terms. The EU is trying to establish a viable common policy vis–à–vis major challenges of the time.The one and only subject upon which EU countries seem to have a large consensus remains the Turkey file. Nobody really wants to touch it, and nobody seems to be too uncomfortable with the present situation of frozen relations. It is becoming harder and harder to believe that the EU can indefinitely disregard the Turkish case. However, this is the irrational reality. Turkey acts as a buffer zone between the Middle East and Europe regarding the formidable immigration wave; it hosts a million-and-a-half Syrian refugees and tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees without any noticeable support from the EU. The only tangible consequence has been the installation of a system of wired fences along the Turkey-Bulgaria border.The accession negotiations are at a standstill, the number of chapters opened has come to a halt, and efforts to revive these negotiations by at least opening new chapters have failed. The Turkish side has recently nominated the former Minister of EU Affairs, Mevlut Çavusoglu, as Foreign Affairs Minister, and Volkan Bozkir, a senior diplomat specializing in EU affairs and a former ambassador, has been nominated as chief negotiator and Minister of EU Affairs. Hardly a better team could have been put in place; still, with the best ambitions, EU integration does not depend on the openings of the candidate country. It requires political will on the part of the EU. Each time this subject is brought to the agenda, EU double talk enters into action: Turkey should open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot planes and boats - in exchange for practically nothing.It has become obvious to everyone until now that Greek Cypriots do not wish for any solution to the problems of the island. The Annan plan was rejected overwhelmingly in 2004, and since then, Greek Cypriots have discovered that intransigence against Turkey could go largely unpunished in the EU. They will continue fooling the EU because the major EU countries prefer to be fooled by Greek Cypriots rather than sit at the table and negotiate with Turkey.At a time when democratic regimes see their frontiers with non-democratic countries becoming very visible, at a time when sectarian divides degenerate large-scale wars and mass murder, when innocent people are slaughtered online, and when ethnic cleansing has replaced the rule of law neither Turkey nor the EU can afford to snub each other.Thinking that not inviting Turkey to the family picture that is taken after the EU summit is a diplomatic achievement is plainly idiotic. Such shortsightedness will cost both the EU and Turkey very dearly.