FOR A MORE TRANSPARENT, DEMOCRATIC AND PROSPEROUS TURKEY, THIS REFORMS PACKAGE IS REQUIRED

Meeting with the representatives of several political groups and the European Parliament's Turkey Rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten at the European Parliament, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis held a press conference.

Stating that no country with a military constitution could become an EU member, Bagis said "I don't believe it to be mere coincidence that since 1960 Turkey has been administered under military-drafted constitutions and since that time, negotiations for EU membership have been unsuccessful. There is no country that could become an EU member with a military constitution. It is high time for Turkey to attain a constitution that is in line with EU standards and that all of its citizens will be able to call their own and that embraces all of its citizens."

EP's Turkey rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten said "I am very pleased about the Constitutional amendment package. I don't want to go into details regarding its content. Its content should be debated by all of the political parties in Turkey. I hope not only the AKP, but also the opposition parties do their best to prepare their own proposal packages."

Bagis emphasized that in the event that the opposition was willing to work in collaboration with them, they were open to all sorts of recommendations regarding the proposal they prepared in order to make Turkey a more transparent, democratic and prosperous country.

Stating that all political parties in Turkey requested an independent and unbiased judiciary and shared the view that judicial reform was a necessity; Bagis added that, with the constitutional amendment they aimed to realize a significant portion of the judicial reform.

In the European Parliament, Bagis came together with Joseph Daul, President of the EPP-ED Group, Jose Ignacio Salafranka, EPP-ED Group coordinator on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Daniel Cohn Bendit, Co-President of the group European Greens-European Free Alliance, Michal Tomasz Kaminski, President of the group of European Conservatives and Reformists and Fiorello Provera, Vice-President of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Pointing to Luxembourg contacts also, Egemen Bagis said "I was very affected by the Turkish flags raised both at the Prime Ministry building and the building of Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Source: AA