ANKARA - The Council of Ministers said on Wednesday that the Regular Report on the progress towards accession of Turkey and Strategy Plan for 2003 showed that majority of expectations from Turkey listed in the Accession Partnership Accord had been met and stressed that Turkey was determined to meet expectations and criteria.
The Council of Ministers released a statement on the progress report for Turkey and parts of strategy plan concerning Turkey.
The statement said that relations between Turkey and European Union (EU) had gained a multi-dimensional structure after the 1999 Helsinki Summit and pre-accession strategy for Turkey was put into practice with all its elements. EU Commission's report for 2003 once more put forth that framework, the statement noted.
The statement said, ''it is our strategic target to become an EU full member. Our accession process is progressing in this direction. Today, we are discussing in which schedule our country will complete the adjustment process required for membership, not whether our country will become EU member or not. As the government, we priorly aim to get the decision to start full membership negotiations in December 2004. Within this scope, we are determined to fulfil objective conditions, required for the decision of EU heads of state and government to open accession talks with our country at the end of 2004, on time and in a sufficient way.''
''The EU Commission has determined in the Regular Report on the progress towards accession of Turkey and Strategy Plan for 2003 that majority of expectations from Turkey listed in the Revised Accession Partnership Accord has been met and our country is determined to meet expectations and criteria. EU's accepting importance of reforms we make in this sense will accelerate our further initiatives,'' the statement noted.
The statement stressed that the report drew attention that there were deficiencies in efficient and regular implementation of reforms.
The government would take necessary measures to put into practice Copenhagen political criteria by using the period till EU Summit due in December 2004 in the best way, the statement said.
The statement pointed out that issues related with implementation were being evaluated by the Reform Monitoring Group formed by the government and the Council of Ministers.
''Our government which is backed by our people, non-governmental organizations and the parliament, including the government and the opposition for EU membership, is able to achieve this target. In fact, initiatives made so far are the guarantee of those to be fulfilled in the future. But, we expect EU to impose same criteria in its evaluations regarding both Turkey and other candidate countries and to be constructive and fair,'' the statement said.
The statement added, ''within this framework, we believe that the progress that our country has recorded in accession process will also be stressed in the political level in the EU summit which will convene between December 12 and 13. Turkey's views on solution of Cyprus issue is known by all sides. Solution of Cyprus issue should not constitute an obligation in context of Copenhagen political criteria. Yet, Turkey wishes a fair and lasting solution in Cyprus.''
(BRC-AÖ) 05.11.2003