Reducing Regional Differences Is Basic Aim Of E.U.

ANKARA - European Union (EU) Commission's Representative to Turkey Hans Jorg Kretschmer said on Monday that reducing regional differences for economic and social development was the basic aim of EU.
Kretschmer attended an international meeting on ''Local Administrative Reforms in Public Management Reform Process'' organized by World Bank Institute and local administrations at Ankara's Dedeman Hotel.
Emphasizing the importance of strengthening local administrations, Kretschmer said that local administrations should be strong in education, health, transportation and other fields as well.
Noting that Turkey needed to strengthen local administrations, Kretschmer said that EU member and candidate countries which wanted to benefit from EU structural funds should get developed in local administrations and issues concerning them.
Kretschmer said that Turkey was a big country which had regional diversity and added that it was more difficult for Turkey to provide consistency in economic and social aspects and appropriate studies should be made in this issue.
(GC-BRC) 06.10.2003