EGEMEN BAGIS VISITS LITHUANIA

During his 3 days visit to Lithuania, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, held official talks in Vilnius and attended the COELA (the Council Working Party on Enlargement) meeting.

In the first day of his official visit, Bagis participated in the Tanini Trio Concert organized by the Turkish Embassy in Vilnius on the occasion of Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. Following the reception, Minister Bagis attended the dinner hosted by the Vilnius Ambassador Akın Algan in his honour.

Minister Bağış was received by the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite on the second day and then met with the Vice President of the Lithuanian Parliament and Chairman of the Committee for European Affairs, Gedminas Kirkilas. Minister Bağış also visited European Institute for Gender Equality.

On the last day, Minister Bağış made a presentation within the framework of the COELA meeting, after which he answered the questions of representatives from EU-member and -candidate countries.

During his statement, Minister Bagis stressed that Turkey’s EU adventure had been continuing for 50 years and answered the question that “what is the  biggest obstacle in front of Turkey?”, by saying “prejudments”.

In the framework of his programme, Minister Bagis also had talks with Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Linas Linkevicius and received the winners of the “2013 EU Story-Writing Competition” organised by the European Union Delegation to Turkey.

In his statement after the talks, Minister Bagis indicated that he had the opportunity to share Turkey’s sensitivities about chapters and said “We have reiterated our calls for visa-free travel of Turkish citizens to the EU and re-emphasized our demand from the EU to take more concrete steps in the fight against terrorism, to adopt a fair attitude towards the solution to the Cyprus issue, as well as to intervene in the developments in Syria and Egypt as a more active actor and make efforts to stop the blood-letting.”