CARLSSON AND BAGIS AT BILGI UNIVERSITY

The round meeting titled “Opportunities and Challenges- Europe” organized by the Platform for Global Challenges was held in Istanbul Bilgi University Santral Campus with the participation of the Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis and Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson. 

In the speech he made during the meeting Minister Bagis stated that the EU membership would contribute to Turkey on democratization and transparency and he said that Turkey would enrich the EU through its geographical location being an energy corridor, the military force playing an important role in the fight against terrorism, the dynamism arising from the young population.

Minister Bagis indicated that despite the economic difficulties experienced by the Europe, the decreasing income per capita was still three times more than Turkey’s, and the tourist, investment and technology mostly came from Europe to Turkey. Egemen Bagis continued as follows: “The relations have never been linked to each other as it is now. Neither the Europe has a luxury to say “No” to Turkey nor does Turkey have a luxury to say “No” to the Europe.

Stating that the negotiation of three chapters which would be opened at the end of the process had been started earlier since the blocking of 17 negotiation chapters might cause challenges for the country, Bagis said “They say ‘you should work on the judicial system and freedom of media’ but these chapters cannot be opened. They want us to do homework without saying what the homework is.”

Source: AA