TURKEY'S COMMITMENT HAS BEEN EXPRESSED ONCE AGAIN AT TURKEY - EUROPEAN UNION TROIKA MINISTERIAL MEETING

Turkey - European Union Troika Ministerial Meeting was held at Four Seasons Bosphorus Hotel in Istanbul. Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu represented Turkey in the meeting with their accompanying delegations.

Foreign Minister of the EU President Sweden Carl Bildt, Spanish Secretary of State for EU Diego Lopez Garrido and Marc Pierrini, the head of the European Commission Delegation to Turkey also attended the meeting.

Turkey - EU Troika Ministerial Meeting has been held once at every presidency period since Helsinki Summit in 1999 where candidate status of Turkey was recognised as a candidate for EU membership.

Speaking at the press conference after the meeting Bagis said almost all dimensions of EU-Turkey relations had been evaluated in Turkey - EU Troika Ministerial Meeting and Turkey had once again expressed its commitment to achieve reforms in the country on the way to EU membership and complete the process of accession negotiations successfully.

Indicating that the reforms achieved in the last 11 months had been reviewed in the meeting and he had observed that the steps taken by the Government within the framework of "National Unity Project" was supported by the guests also, Bagis said: "We asked for the continuation and gradual increase of their support particularly with regard to the fight against PKK. We emphasised that unfair political obstacles placed in the way of Turkey had a negative effect on Turkish public opinion."

Stating that they had the opportunity to indicate once again that as of 2010 EU accession negotiations would continue with a new strategy consisting of four platforms, Bagis said that they had repeated their demand to open the negotiations on Environment Chapter in December.

Bagis said that they believed that the adoption of Lisbon Treaty and Europe's elimination of the elements of uncertainty would have a positive effect on Turkey's EU accession process.

Source: AA