EU-Turkey: Discussion with Minister Bağis about perspectives in the accession process
Commissioner Štefan Füle met with Turkish EU Minister Bağis in Strasbourg today to look at how the accession process of Turkey could be moved forward. At their first meeting after the publication of the Commission's Enlargement Strategy and Progress Report on Turkey, Commissioner Füle emphasised the importance of EU-Turkey relations as highlighted in these documents as well as in the statement by the Reform Monitoring Group in Turkey of 11 November 2012. He also called for a new momentum in the accession negotiations. "Both sides made it clear that they understand what is at stake: we need to work even harder now to create momentum, allowing us to reach our common goal" Commissioner Füle said.
"If both of us, Turkey and the EU do our best, 2013 could be a promising year," he added, stressing that while the Positive Agenda is delivering first results, the joint focus should be to create conditions for advancing the accession negotiations. Commissioner Füle also expressed the hope that the Commission would soon be able to hand over the Roadmap on visa liberalisation to Turkey, in parallel with Turkey's signature of the Readmission Agreement.