COMMERCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF TURKEY TO EU?
The Italian news portal 'Turchiaeuropa.com' which started broadcasting in English under the title 'Towardsturkey.com', included the statements of Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis.
Addressing the commercial contributions that Turkey would make following the EU accession, the article indicated that Turkey was an ascending actor in its region and included the following:
Turkish membership of the EU would bring a new sort of dynamism into the EU. Economic growth in Turkey between 2002 and 2007 averaged 6.8% and in just seven years time, Turkey is expected to be the world's third highest growing country after China and India.
Turkey is a leading player in many European sectors, from textiles to TVs to commercial vehicles and large scale construction. With several projects, Turkey is becoming a real energy hub, contributing to European energy security and diversification and creating further investment fields. The Turkish diplomacy projects stability, cooperation and peace, which is the very basis of the EU. Turkey has become an economic powerhouse that ranks as Europe's sixth largest economy and the 15th largest globally.
What is clear from these statistics is that Turkish membership of the EU could be the driver of future EU growth since it provides easy access to 1.34 billion consumers in Europe, CIS, Middle and North Africa. All international authorities expect Turkey record the highest rate of growth in 2010. This is a point that should be given a serious consideration especially nowadays since the European economy looks for ways and means to get out of the ongoing global economic crisis.
For Turkey, EU membership would allow its business leaders unfettered access to half a billion EU customers – along with the involvement in decision-making and reform that EU membership brings.
