Saturday, 13 June 2009Turkey's European Union (EU) negotiator said on Friday that there was no option other than full membership for Turkey.
Egemen Bagis, the Turkish state minister and chief negotiator for EU talks, said that Turkey would never accept "privileged partnership" proposals.
"Turkey will either be an EU full member or it will never become a member of the union," Bagis told the French Le Monde newspaper.
Bagis said that the privileged partnership proposal had no legal grounds, and Turkey had already been in Europe with its customs union agreement with the EU, its membership in European institutions and organizations, and with more than 5 million Turkish citizens who were living in Europe.
Also, Bagis said that the results of the European Parliament (EP) elections were not a surprise, and criticized some politicians particularly in France and Germany of making Turkey a tool for elections.
"European leaders should have concentrated more on solving our common problems," he told the newspaper.
Bagis said that Europe was facing some problems like energy security, defense, human trafficking, immigration, economic crisis, terrorism and Islamophobia, but Turkey's membership would help solve those problems. |
Saturday, 13 June 2009
PARIS (A.A)
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