"EU MEMBERSHIP, A UNITING PROJECT"

Citing that no political party had a monopoly on EU, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis stated that "in fact EU is a project that will unite ruling party and opposition, easterner and westerner, military and civilian".

Briefing the TGNA Foreign Affairs Commission parliamentarians on the latest situation in negotiations with EU, Bagis said that "thank God we have democracy in our country; thank God we have our Assembly, TGNA where the will of our public is represented".

Bagis stated that as a result Turkey was a shining star in its region.

Expressing that after taking over the position of the chief negotiator he called Yasar Yakis, head of EU Harmonization Committee in the Turkish Parliament and Murat Mercan, head of TGNA Foreign Affairs Commission to inform them of his intention to visit their commissions to answer the questions of the members and to give information about the work they have been conducting, Bagis continued his speech saying that

"EU is a project on which no political party has a monopoly and which in fact unites us, it is a project that will unite government and opposition, easterner and westerner, young and old, men and women, military and civilian, employer and employee and people who belong to different religions, cultures and ethnical groups in Turkey. In this regard I attach great importance to the views of political parties represented in TGNA. I had a chance to have meetings with leaders of all political parties which have groups in the Assembly. The first appointment was given by Mr. Devlet Bahceli, leader of MHP and then we met Mr. Ahmet Turk, leader of DTP. Furthermore, while travelling to Brussels, even if it was in the plane we got the chance to exchange views with Mr. Deniz Baykal, leader of CHP. It makes me very hopeful about the process before us that all our leaders have made a promise to support EU membership target, which they themselves also noted that they consider a state policy. I hereby thank all the opposition parties. Collaborating once again during the process before us, taking decisions that are right for Turkey together and making democracy work in a more dynamic way, we will cover a distance in the EU process which is Turkey's most important modernisation project".