The European Union will seek to hold a summit meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan next month to discuss the testy relations between the two.
EU President Donald Tusk said at the end of an EU summit on Thursday that he was given "a mandate" to set up a meeting between the leaders of EU institutions and Turkey next month.
He said no date or place had been set.
The 28-nation EU and Turkey have a deal under which Turkey makes sure to stem the flow of migrants into Europe in return for billions of euros to take care of them there.
However, Turkey and the EU have been at loggerheads about Turkey's security crackdown since a failed coup in July.
Earlier this week, EU countries expressed deep concern about Turkey's crackdown but stopped short of officially freezing membership talks with the country - a move that is favoured by Austria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the migrant deal's main architects, stressed the importance of keeping lines of communication open.
"I don't think threats are the right answer," she said.
While EU members don't currently plan to open any new chapters in the long-running membership negotiations, "everyone was aware that even if we have very critical remarks to make about some developments in Turkey, Turkey is our neighbour and we want to keep talking in the spirit of neighbourhood," Merkel said.
