EGEMEN BAGIS PARTICIPATES IN GMF BRUSSELS FORUM

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis participated in Brussels Forum held by German Marshall Fund on 23-25 March 2012. 

Minister Bagis attended the session titled “EU-Turkey-United States in a Volatile Neighborhood: Are Key Partners on the Same Page?” moderated by Dr. Ian Lesser, Executive Director of the GMF Brussels Office, along with Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Member of European Parliament, Dr. Nathalie Tocci, Deputy Director of International Affairs Institute (IAI) and Robert Wexler, President of S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

Making a press statement after the closed-press session, Bagis indicated that he expressed in the Forum that the debate over “Who lost Turkey?” made no sense and Turkey became more democratic and powerful by growing each day.” He also stated that if the European Union wanted to become an international peace center, it needed Turkey, which played a critical role in ensuring the balance in the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing attention to the visa problem, Minister Bagis added that the EU states’ strict approach to visa policies on Turkey was an indicator of the eclipse of reason that they were in.

Many issues varying from “Global Europe”, “The Iran Conundrum” to “Food Security” and “The 2012 U.S. Elections” were discussed in the 2012 meeting with the participation of various members of parliament, representatives from NATO, academicians, journalists and representatives from companies.

Within the framework of the Brussels program, Minister Bagis also attended Turkey-EU Political Dialogue Meeting together with Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Turkey-EU relations, Positive Agenda and foreign policy issues on common interests were discussed in the meeting which Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Stefan Fule, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy represented the EU side.