Monday, 12 October 2009
Turkey's State Minister and Chief Negotiator for EU talks Egemen Bagis met on Monday President of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) Lluis Maria de Puig, who is in the Turkish capital for talks.
Puig is in Ankara as the Turkish capital won the "2009 European Prize", a distinction that is bestowed each year on a European town for its actions in the European domain.
At the meeting with Bagis, Puig said he was in favor of Turkey's integration to EU and added that majority of parliamentarians in PACE were thinking the same way. He said it was an indisputable fact that Turkey was a European country.
On his part, Bagis said that Turkey was a member of the Council since the beginning, stating that the future of Europe, just as the history of the continent, could not be explained without Turkey.
Bagis described Turkey's EU bid as a peace project and said the project could not be completed without Turkey's accession to EU.
Reiterating Turkey's commitment to become a part of the Union, Bagis said Turkey was determined to overcome challenges on this path.
Following his meeting with Bagis, Puig paid a visit to Turkish Parliament and met Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin. Their meeting was closed to press.
Meanwhile, before his meeting with Puig, Bagis had another meeting with Senator Rosanna Boldi, chairman of the European policy commission in Italian Senate.
