TURKEY AND ROMANIA SIGNS A COOPERATION MEMORANDUM ON EU ISSUES

Paying two days official visit to Romania’s capital Bucharest, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis met with Minister for EU Affairs of Romania Leonard Orban and attended the signature ceremony of the memorandum envisaging cooperation of two countries on EU matters.

Indicating that Romania was one of the most important supporters of Turkey in the EU, Bagis reminded that though the two countries went through trying times, the EU reforms contributed to their  modernization and added “We have a 134 years of history, we will try to strengthen our relations.”

Under the framework of his Romania visit, Minister Bagis also met with Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and Romanian Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu.

Egemen Bagis held contacts in the Romanian Parliament on the second day of his official visit to Romania. Meeting with Titus Corlatean, the chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of Romanian Senate, Bagis said that one-year visa, which was given to Turkish businessmen, would be extended to five years in Romania.

“It is illogical for two countries as close as Turkey and Romania to apply a visa regime to each other” said Bagis and added: “Romania is not the issue in the matter of the visas for Turkish citizens. It is the Schengen rules. It is both illogical and against legal principles for the EU to apply a visa regime to Turkish citizens”.

Delivering a conference at the European Union Commission’s agency in Bucharest, Bagis indicated that when the Middle East and North Africa was undergoing an Arab Spring, Europe was experiencing fall due to economic crisis and added: “Turkey can change the atmosphere in Europe”.

Source: Ministry for EU Affairs, AA