OUR REACTION TO CONTRADICTIONS OF THE EU IS MERELY NOT ENOUGH

Stating that the EU has adopted a contradictory attitude towards the accession period of Turkey, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said: “Our reaction to such serious contradictions is slight and limited”. 

Appearing as a guest on the TV program called “Ankara’nın Gündemi” which was broadcast live on TGRT News channel on 17.10.2012, Bagis reported that one of the reasons why the Progress Report of Turkey published by the European Commission was more critical than the previous years was that it was prepared during the Greek Cypriot Administration EU Presidency and said: “We cannot consider the whole report as critical. In fact, the report also includes significant praise, but these reports can be regarded as a glass of water, sometimes the half of which is full, while sometimes the half of which is empty. It depends how you look at that glass”.

Reporting that the problems regarding the judicial system did not pertain to Turkey, but the EU member states had also problems concerning their judicial system, Bagis said: “Today, England has very serious problems about the freedom of the press. We have witnessed that there was a great pressure on the press in order not to publish the photos of some loyal people in England.

“We have to adopt such an approach namely ‘do what the European Union requests, but don’t do what it really does’. The European Commission does not prepare reports about the member states, but about the candidate countries.” said Bagis and stated that there might be much worse situations considering the EU member states.

Noting that the cases which were considered as matters of concern in this year’s report had been praised in the previous report, Bagis said: “It is sure enough not to accept the big difference between the incompatibility, contradictions, insincerity we have faced, the words we have heard and the things at the backdoor”.

Indicating that Turkey was definitely right on the visa issue, Bagis said: “It is the top issue on my agenda, as well. I attach much more importance to attaining some achievements on the visa issue than opening chapters during the negotiations”.

Egemen Bagis also said: “Our society is angry about the EU process with good reasons. This anger is not about the EU standards, the values represented by the Union or the steps for reforms towards the EU path; rather, it is about the double standards practiced by the EU to Turkey. The fact that we are angry about the progress report does not mean that we have given up our love to reach the EU standards”.