MINISTER BAGIS MEETS WITH THE GOVERNORS OF 20 PILOT PROVINCES

Egemen Bagis, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator came together with Osman Gunes, Deputy Minister of the Interior and the governors of 20 pilot provinces within the context of “The Project on Technical Assistance for Building the Capacity of EU Affairs in the Governorates (VABpro)” at the breakfast meeting held on 18 February 2013.

Egemen Bagis, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator, stated during his opening speech that the blockage before the Chapter 22 had been lifted in consequence of the efforts by the Ministry for EU Affairs. Minister Bagis underlined that the context of the projects realised for the provinces was closely linked with the scope of this chapter and added that the final objective of these projects was to further benefit from these large-budget funds after becoming an EU member, in particular. Minister Bagis finally stated that Turkey did not follow the EU but leaded it through the reforms and projects it realised.

“The Project on Technical Assistance for Building the Capacity of EU Affairs in the Governorates”, the contracting authority of which is the Central Finance and Contracts Unit will be carried out by the Ministry for EU Affairs within the scope of Instrument for Pre-Accession and will be implemented in 20 pilot provinces for a 2-year period. Within the scope of the Project the total budget of which is €1,950,000, activities such as trainings, regional workshops, capacity building activities, city twinning programme, study visits abroad will be organised after making a Need Assessment Study in order to define the real needs on EU issues at the provincial level. The website of the Project (www.vabpro.org) through which a detailed information is provided will be activated in the upcoming days.