"WE WILL PRESENT OUR NEW EU STRATEGY TO THE PARLIAMENT AND GOVERNMENT IN JANUARY 2010"

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis submitted the budget of the Secretariat General for EU Affairs to the Plan and Budget Commission. In his presentation Bagis noted that the government made considerable progress towards full membership also in 2009 by virtue of decisive, persistent and planned steps.

Indicating that as the Secretariat General for EU Affairs they aimed to continue current work within the framework of a new and updated strategy in the upcoming period, Bagis stated that the new strategy was laid on 4 pillars.

Bagis noted that the first pillar included ensuring the continuation of the current negotiation process on the official platform, the second pillar included scheduling the work to be conducted in years 2010-2013 on annual basis, third platform included political criteria and reforms and the fourth pillar included a very strong communication strategy.

Bagis said, "We anticipate presenting our new EU strategy to our parliament and government in January 2010."

Bagis stated that Draft Framework for European Union Communication Strategy (EUCS) which aimed to communicate Turkey to Europe and Europe to Turkey was created and EUCS database and web site were prepared.

Reminding that the logo of the Secretariat General for EU Affairs was altered, Bagis said, "The message conveyed with the new logo is that Turkey will join the EU not to be a burden on it but to relieve it of its burden and it will transform the EU based on the contribution it makes to it. This philosophy lies on the basis of our work, actually."

Bagis reiterated that Turkey's EU journey was a reasonable choice of the Turkish people and he added that there was no any other choice in that way which they set out with the aim of full membership. Reminding that 11 chapters were opened for negotiations, Bagis continued as follows:"With the positive influences of EU process, Turkey is undergoing an impressive change and transformation process. The concept of the individual rights and freedoms of the Turkish citizens have been enlarged. The economic reforms have brought stability and prosperity and have enabled Turkey to be among the world's leading centres in foreign capital.

Negotiation process already has and, in the future, will have some difficulties pertinent to itself. As long as common sense dominates this process, all problems will be overcome. Discussions related to Turkey's membership have increased since EU failed to realize some institutional and political reforms that its last enlargement wave necessitated and since it could not concentrate on a new enlargement process because of the pressure that occurred as an unavoidable outcome of the global crisis. However, Turkey already possesses the power, enthusiasm and will that are going to enable Turkey to attain a success in the negotiation process within the framework of win-win principle.

Bagis stated that according to the public surveys 60 percent of Turkish Republic citizens wanted Turkey become a member to the EU.

Bagis answered questions and criticisms posed during negotiations on the budget of the Secretariat General for EU Affairs in the TGNA Plan and Budget Commission.

Answering the criticisms about the open-ended nature of the negotiations, Bagis said:

"Today even the catholic weddings are open-ended. We can't guarantee that Turkey will become a member at the day it concludes negotiations either. Perhaps Turkish people in a referendum will prefer not to be a member to the Union as Norwegian people did. Actually, there is no single country which started the negotiation process and couldn't complete it; we say that ‘Turkey mustn't be an exception either'. Turkey should also reach these standards. What is important for Turkey is the process not the result. In this process, Turkey is turning into a more democratic and prosperous country where there is more rule of law every passing day and it is taking important steps in becoming a country which is more sensitive about human rights. We definitely must maintain this."

Indicating that there was no such situation that the EU demanded the release of the terrorist chief and acceptance of Armenian genocide claims, Bagis noted that there was serious disinformation on these issues.

Source: AA