ANKARA - Justice Minister and Government Spokesman Cemil Cicek said on Monday that EU was the most important issue for the government, adding the government focused on it sensitively.
Cicek noted that Turkey-EU relations would always be on agenda in Council of Ministers meeting every week.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Cicek said that they made an assessment about Turkey's position within EU process.
Cicek recalled that the national programme was revised in July, discussed in Council of Ministers meeting and published in Official Gazette, adding that ''we had concluded that 2004 year was very important for implementation of reforms, the laws adopted should be closely monitored, and the Secretariat General for EU should prepare reports about implementation of national programme from time to time.'' Cicek said that Secretariat General gave information about the regulations done regarding national programme as a result of this decision. Cicek stressed that EU was always on the agenda of the government.
Noting that 2004 December was a turning point in respect of Turkey, Cicek said ''EU issue is 40-year marathon for Turkey and we are at the last stage in that marathon. Therefore we will take up Turkey-EU relations in cabinet meetings every week. We will assess the studies undertaken and to be undertaken every week at the cabinet meetings. We believe that there are vital interests of Turkey in Turkey-EU relations. Turkey will join the EU with positive contributions. It is not possible for other country to make the contributions which Turkey can make particularly when the recent incidents are taken into account. Turkey contributed to development of many EU countries with its labour force in the past. But Turkey will contribute to EU with its educated people, and dynamic population today. ''
Cicek said that important political developments took place in Georgia last week, and remarked that Georgia had good relations with Turkey. Noting that Turkey closely monitored all developments in Georgia as it was a neighbour of Turkey, Cicek said that Georgia was in economic difficulty and it had urgent needs. ''We decided to meet its urgent needs, particularly to send to Georgia. Foreign Ministry will coordinate the amount and method of sending the aid, we took a decision in principle in that regard.''

Cicek said that they decided to submit draft law on amendment in Execution and Bankruptcy Law to the parliament in the meeting of Council of Ministers.
Cicek told reporters that he informed ministers about his visit to the United States and Turkish-American relations in the meeting.
Cicek said that 2004 year was of great importance for Turkey and stated that 2004 would be year of Turkey in the world. Stating that NATO summit would be held in Turkey, he said that the U.S. President would visit Turkey and Organization of Islamic Conference would convene in Turkey.
Noting that they decided to submit draft law on amendment in Execution and Bankruptcy Law to the parliament in the meeting of Council of Ministers, Cicek said that the draft was prepared by his ministry and Treasury. He noted that establishments should have capacity of paying their debts and collecting their receivables and said that there should be a new concept which would provide establishments with collecting their receivables and paying their debts in Execution and Bankruptcy Law and added that they decided to submit a new arrangement to the parliament today.
CICEK: ''STATEMENTS SUCH AS 'DO NOT GO TO TURKEY' ARE PASSIVE SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM''
When asked the visit of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the United States, Cicek said that they thought that it would be appropriate that Erdogan would pay the visit in the first month of 2004. Noting that the decision should be conveyed officially, Cicek said that the visit could be paid on January.
When a reporter said that some European countries had assumed negative stances against Turkey in regard to the bomb attacks in Istanbul and asked about the stance of the United States, Cicek said that during his visit to the United States he had the impression that such attitudes were not approved, adding that he met with some non-governmental organizations and he had clearly said that ''statements such as 'do not go to Turkey' would become passive support for terrorism.'' He said that it was necessary to be determined against terrorism and if terrorism decided to harm someone, it could make this anywhere instead of Turkey, thus everybody should firstly make cooperation against terrorism instead of making such statements and warnings.
Stressing that there were terrorist organizations behind many organized crimes, Cicek recalled that sometimes there were some terrorist organizations behind drug and human smuggling and those terrorist organizations provided their finance this way. He added that international cooperation should be made against it and such a discussion could be made under the auspices of NATO and the United Nations. He said that there were some activities under the auspices of Council of Europe and it was necessary to speed them up.
Cicek said that Turkey welcomed condolence messages of EU with respect, but did not consider their passive attitude true.
(GC-AÖ) 08.12.2003