BAGIS ATTENDS THE DUBROVNIK SUMMIT

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis attended the Croatia Summit in Dubrovnik, gave a speech on "the Future Vision of Southeast Europe" and carried out bilateral talks on Turkey's EU accession negotiations.

In his speech, indicating that personal benefits should be taken into consideration instead of personal approaches in the future Europe, he said "Turkey was a part of the EU in the past and will continue to be a part of it in the future". Bagis also pointed out the key role of Turkey in solving the problems of Europe to a large extent.

Referring to the visa exemption between Turkey and Croatia, Bagis indicated that this regulation has not posed any problem; on the contrary, it has affected the commerce and the tourism in a positive way. Bagis said: "The EU should also sign a visa exemption agreement with Turkey"

Speaking about terrorism, Bagis said "fighting against terrorism is a must" and continued as follows:

"Terrorism is the common problem for many countries in Europe. We also have it in Turkey. The European Union should be cooperative and decisive in the fight against terrorism in each country. We expect support on this issue. Nobody is in safety unless everbody is in safety."

Then, Egemen Bagis met with the foreign ministers and the ministers for EU affairs of some countries.

In Dubrovnik Palace Hotel, where the summit was held, Bagis talked to the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Haşim Taçi; Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov; Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt; Polish Minister for EU Affairs, Mikolaji Dowgielewicz and the Greece Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dimitris Drucas.

Throughout the negotiations, Turkey's EU accession process and the other diplomatic topics were dealt with.

Source: AA