COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe was held in Madrid, Spain. In the meeting celebrating the 60th year of the establishment of Committee of Ministers, Turkey was represented by Egemen Bagis, Minister for EU Affairs and the Chief Negotiator.

Evaluating Turkey's EU process after the meeting, Bagis recorded that Spain notably gave support to Turkey's EU membership.

Emphasizing that Spain and Sweden were the allies of Turkey and stressing that he put forth the indisputability of Turkey within the EU in every occasion, Bagis said that, the presidencies of the two countries had been a good opportunity for Turkey and Turkey had made the best of it.

Bagis continued his speech with these:

"As a matter of course, my addressees expressed that it was hard for them to understand the statements of Sarkozy and Merkel which aimed at rendering Turkey propaganda material prior to the European Parliament Elections. Unfortunately, I feel sad about the attempts of important EU member states' leaders aimed at rendering Turkey's EU membership process a material for internal policy and likewise it is distressing to see the ones in Turkey attempting to render the statements of these leaders a material for internal policy. I wish the political leaders who attempt to make use of these within Turkey, expressed the same decisiveness with regard to the steps that have to be taken in order to help Turkey reach EU standarts.

Instead of spending their time on the statements of the European leaders, I think it would be much more better if they expressed their decesiveness with regard to collaborating with us in order for Turkey to attain a constitution, human rights, democracy, union law, environment law in European standarts.

We stated as on any other occasions in Madrid that these provocations won't get Turkey to throw in the towel and that the resistance centres neither inside nor outside will cause us to give in in this process. We will continue to express our views this way henceforth.

Turkey, which is a full member of almost all of the European institutions, will be a member of the EU, too. I sincerely believe in this."

Reminding that Cyprus issue was on the agenda during the talks in Spain, and that on 26 April 2004, the Council of the European Union made the decision unanimously to put an end to the isolations in TRNC, Bagis said that the issues of lifting isolations and unjust embargoes were also discussed during the talks.

Noting that Turkey-EU Association Council meeting was to be held in Brussels on Tuesday, Bagis stated that he would attend this meeting with Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and they would continue arguing for Turkey's demands.

Holding bilateral talks with either Foreign Ministers or vice Foreign Ministers of Denmark, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Greece on the occasion of the meeting in Madrid, Bagis said that he talked about Turkey's negotiation process with the EU and support they gave to Mehmet Ali Talat, President of the TRNC to carry on with the negotiations in Cyprus. Bagis added that bilateral relations with these countries were also discussed and that he received positive responses.

Resource: AA