Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Turkey still interested in joining the EU - Deputy PM

26 September 2016 16:45 (UTC+04:00)
Turkey still interested in joining the EU - Deputy PM

By Gunay Hasanova

Accession to the EU is still a priority for Turkey, said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmush, TV channel TRT Haber reported on September 26.

Kurtulmush stressed that Turkey supports the opening of a new stage in the negotiation process between the parties.

He noted that Turkey is closely following the process of abolishing the visa regime between Turkey and the EU.

The Heads of State and the EU Member States' governments agreed with Turkey upon a joint plan to combat the migration crisis in mid-March. The program is focusing on the return of illegal immigrants arriving from Greece to the territory of Turkey and accepting legal Syrian refugees in Turkey by the EU based principle of "one for one".

The European Commission has proposed in May that the European Parliament and EU Council will lift visa restrictions for citizens of Turkey if Ankara will fulfill the remaining conditions for the abolition of visas until the end of June.

The list of pre-conditions included measures to prevent corruption, negotiations on an operational agreement with Europol (the EU police office), providing judicial cooperation with all EU member states, as well as the revision of the legislation on the fight against terrorism.

Earlier, former Minister of Turkey for EU Affairs Volkan Bozkır noted that Ankara doubts the readiness of the EU to abolish the visa regime for Turkey, adding that the EU requires Turkey to mitigate the law to combat terrorism, which is impossible.

Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if the EU doesn’t cancel visa regime with Turkey in mid-October, Ankara won’t be able to receive illegal migrants from the EU.

Earlier Ankara abolished visas for citizens of all 28 EU countries. However, the visa-free regime will come into force only after the EU abolishes visa regime for Turkish citizens.

In accordance with the agreement reached between Turkey and the EU, the citizens of Cyprus will also be able to take advantage of visa-free regime with Turkey.

Turkey has a long waited for its EU membership, while each application to accede to the European Union was frustrating for the government. Turkey, holding a status of an associate member at the Economic Community -- the predecessor of the EU since 1963 -- made an official application for entry on April 14, 1987.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more