Turkey Cannot Be A Member Before 2014, Bagis

ISTANBUL - Turkey's European Union (EU) negotiator expressed his thought late on Monday that Turkey could not be an EU member before 2014.
Egemen Bagis, the state minister and Turkey's chief negotiator for EU talks, said, "it is very clear that Turkey cannot become a member before 2014."

Bagis delivered a speech on Turkey's EU negotiation process at the Political Academy of the Justice & Development (AK) Party in Istanbul.

Bagis said that it was too early to talk about a date for membership for a country whose negotiations could be launched 45 years after its application and who could launch full membership negotiations on one-third of the chapters.

Egemen Bagis said that Turkey's EU process had been problematic so far and would be so from now on and therefore, Turkey needed to be very patient.

The minister said both Europe and Turkey were aware that the process is a win-win one.

Turkey became an EU candidate country in December 1999. The union launched accession talks with Turkey on October 3, 2005.