EU PROCESS IS NOW THE ISSUE OF EVERY PROVINCE OF TURKEY

The Kick-Off Conference of “Building Capacity for EU Affairs in the Governorates” Project, hosted by the Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, was held in Ankara. 

Minister of Interior, Muammer Guler, President of Central Finance and Contract Unit, Muhsin Altun, representatives of public institutions and Governors, provincial EU Permanent Contact Points and Deputy Governors of 20 pilot provinces participated to the Conference besides Minister Bagis.

Bagis, stating that the biggest obstacle to EU was prejudices and everybody had significant responsibilities in overcoming these prejudices, described the benefits of the Project as the following:

“Within the scope of the projects which we launched with the Ministry of Interior, EU process is now the issue of every province, every district, every town, and every neighborhood of Turkey. Because EU conducts a lot of projects which affect the lives of our citizens in everywhere through its funds. Today ear tags for more than 26 million animals in Turkey were provided through EU funds. Solid waste sorting and water treatment facilities were established in 35 provinces. More than 300.000 of our citizens travelled to Europe for training up till now. Today, EU funds are also being used in Ankara-Istanbul high speed train project. We realize all of these works together with the local authority of that province. The biggest obstacle in doing these works was that the authorities did not have qualified staff. Within the framework of the agreement signed with the Ministry of Interior nearly 3 years ago, we started to support these projects by improving. Now, we have a Deputy Governor in charge of EU Affairs in every province.”