"TURKEY SHOULD ACHIEVE A JUDICIAL SYSTEM AT EU STANDARDS"

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagiş who attended the program named "Ufuk Cizgisi" broadcasted on TRT 2 as a guest, conveyed that it has been the high time to implement the judicial reform strategy at EU standards. Bagis said: "Turkey should achieve a judicial system at EU standards"

Reminding that President Gul had said that in order to overcome the crisis in jurisdiction it was necessary to make arrangements in compliance with the EU accession process, Bagis stated that a couple of months ago a workshop headed by the Minister of Justice had been held with the participation of representatives from Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, Constitutional Court, Court of Auditors, Supreme Court of Appeals, and Council of State, and that at the end of this workshop a common declaration on a judicial reform at EU standards had been released.

Emphasizing that even the simplest lawsuits could be spanned to 2 years time and that was quite a long time, Bagis said that extension of lawsuits has caused damage to the companies making investments of billions of dollars, to the employment and economy of Turkey, to the tax revenue of the state and to the right of people to live in higher standards.

Bagis, likewise stated there have been some problems concerning the penal code and administrative code and Turkey had to make a judicial reform in order to surmount those problems.

Bagis said: "It is time to have the legal standard of Holland, France and Germany in our country too. Unfortunately, the legal system of our country is withdrawn, isolated from the society and in such a position that the public feel alienated from the system. It is time to have a constitution that everybody can say that it is my constitution. We should have a legal system that everybody can rely on the protection of it."

Bagis indicated that it was judiciary that would protect democracy, and added: "There cannot be democracy, human rights and freedoms in a period where a specific part of the society does not rely on the judiciary."

Bagis said that there was mutual distrust within the judiciary and it was impossible to annihilate that via persons; the only way to achieve that goal was to have principles and rules.

Source: AA