By Robin Emmott
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey and the European Union sought to minimise their differences on Thursday when Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Brussels and offered more cooperation in the fight against Islamic State.
But while Davutoglu said Turkey was "ready to work with the European Union in all fields," EU lawmakers voiced concerns over freedom of speech in Turkey, on a day when prosecutors there launched an investigation into a newspaper for reprinting excerpts from French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
In December, the European Union reprimanded Turkey, a candidate to join the EU, over raids on media outlets, but European Council President Donald Tusk avoided such direct criticism on Thursday when he met Davutoglu.
"We might have differences of opinion on the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo. I am sure that some in the EU also disagree with what they say. But we will defend their right to say so. For Europe this is a question of fundamental values," Tusk said after meeting Davutoglu, standing next to the prime minister.
"Turkey's accession process remains the main framework of our relations," he told reporters.
The meeting took place several hours before two people were reported killed during a police counter-terrorism raid in eastern Belgium.
Davutoglu said he hoped for more momentum on Turkey's long-stalled EU membership bid.
In a speech to diplomats before meeting Tusk, Davutoglu also offered to do more to "close the border" to foreign fighters of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq coming into Turkey, a transit point for some before they return home to Europe.
Members of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg condemned raids on media outlets close to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses of forming a 'parallel state' to undermine his rule.
"Many journalists are in jail or have lost their jobs because they have criticised government policies. That is unacceptable for an EU accession candidate," said Alexander Lambsdorff, a German liberal in the European Parliament.
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
