EU COMMUNICATION STRATEGY ADVISORY AND STEERING COMMITTEE CONVENED

EU Communication Strategy Consultation and Steering Committee Meeting was held at the Secretariat General for EU Affairs. Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Minister for EU Affairs and the Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis stated that no power, neither in Europe nor in Turkey, would be able to stop that process and he added that patience and time were needed for EU to understand Turkey better and for Turkey to appreciate the contributions of EU.

Referring to the importance of communication for Turkey in the EU membership process, Bagis stated that in those meetings the discussions would be about how to please the opponents of Turkey's EU membership. Bagis noted that he believed in the idea that, they could explain the EU in Turkey and at the same time they could explain Turkey, its culture and its further contributions to EU in the member states.

Noting that, this year they would start with a new EU negotiation strategy consisted of 4 main platforms, Bagis stated that in the first platform the negotiation process would be carried out and he added that apart from fulfilling the closing benchmarks of 12 chapters which were opened for negotiations, fulfilment of the opening benchmarks of 4-5 chapters that are likely to be opened for negotiations were also under the first platform.

Indicating that some countries in Europe claimed that there were chapters which Turkey could not open, Bagis said, "In spite of them, we will almost oblige them to continue negotiations with Turkey on the second platform by meeting the opening criteria of those chapters." Bagis stated that they would concentrate more on the political process on the third platform and they would focus more on the communication area on the fourth platform.

Source: AA