EMPHASIS ON EU REFORMS

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis indicated that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s speech at the 4th Ordinary Congress of AK Party focused on reform determination. 

Answering the questions of the press, Bagis summarized Prime Minister’s speech as “don’t give up keep on with the reforms” and added “Our Prime Minister has emphasized our determination in making a new Constitution. He has indicated that the AK Party is the strongest guarantee in paving the way for freedoms, as it has always been”. Minister Bagis said the following:

“It is true that our Prime Minister hasn’t mentioned the EU process specifically, however this should bother some narrow minded politicians in the EU and the EU itself. We should interpret this as a reaction of our Prime Minister to the double standards of the EU, which is a reasonable reaction. I want to underline the fact that Turkish public opinion’s loss of interest in the EU process is a more important issue than the economic crisis for the EU. Thus, an EU without Turkey cannot wage an effective struggle against the economic crisis. Therefore, the EU has to switch to common sense immediately. Our EU target relies on a strategic vision and it is still a state policy. And it is AK Party which has turned the process into a concrete foundation and to a real benefit for our country. With its determination, AK Party set the negotiation date and started negotiations and hopefully it will successfully complete the EU harmonization process. Thus, our determination in the EU process is indicated in one of the 63 articles constituting our road map which was distributed in the party congress.

We will continue to react to the double standards of the EU and continue to express the feelings of our people, but won’t let some narrow minded politicians in the EU abuse Turkey’s path toward contemporary civilizations for their daily political interests.”

Source: AA