BAGIS BRIEFS FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

Giving a briefing on the “Recent Developments in the relations between Turkey and the EU” at the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis touched upon the developments in the EU process.

Stating that TGNA played a vital role in Turkey’s path to EU membership, Bagis indicated that 17 negotiation chapters could not be opened due to the blocking and that there were 3 chapters that could be opened, which were “Public Procurement, Social Policy and Employment, and Competition.

Bagis also expressed that the European Commission conveyed the official letter previous day, regarding the demands for the opening of Chapter 22 to negotiations, and said, “I hope we will have opened the Regional Policy chapter to negotiations during Ireland’s term presidency, in other words by the end of June.”

Drawing attention to the positive developments on Turkey’s EU membership and recalling the official talks held by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Austria yesterday, Minister Bagis said, “Even the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Spindelegger who is known to be one of the most skeptical persons over Turkey’s EU membership said that Austria is supporting Turkey’s EU membership and they are not blocking any chapters. In fact, this development alone can be perceived as the signal of a very important change.