The Accepted Way Of Negotiations

BY FERAI TINC
HURRIYET- ‘I’ll be the chief negotiator,’ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the April 23 National Sovereignty Day reception. ‘I’ll have an assistant. This is the accepted way of conducting the EU negotiations.’
The style of European Union negotiations, the way a government manages them, is important.
New EU members attached the highest importance to the style of their negotiations. We discussed this issue with new EU member countries’ chief negotiators two days ago. ‘As soon as the Helsinki summit greenlighted our negotiations, we immediately established our team,’ said Slovakian Ambassador Juraj Migash. ‘This was a symbolic move for us to show Brussels that we were ready and resolved to start our membership talks.’
The structure of the negotiations team is also very important. According to Migash, the first step to take is to establish EU Integration divisions within the bodies of the ministries. These divisions will then form the team which will lead the negotiations technically.
‘These departments must involve well-educated young people with a good command of foreign languages, who are capable of establishing good relations with Europeans, and who can speak the language of Brussels,’ said Helen Campbell, a British member of the delegation conducting negotiations with Bulgaria. ‘Those who will work in these departments must enjoy full freedom of expression because sometimes Brussels’ messages might not be welcomed by high-level politicians. No matter what these young people say or argue, they mustn’t be relieved of their duties. The negotiations team must also be capable of understanding what we want and convey it to Ankara correctly. Mutual trust is a must. We’ve established very good and effective relations with the Bulgarian team, and this has been very much helpful to the country.’
She also added that on May 9 they would go to an Irish pub in Brussels with the Bulgarian team for a night out of fun. ‘We’ll look forward to it,’ she added. Isn’t this natural? The EU is a platform made up of people and their agreements. With each new step and each new person, new stones are added to the foundation of their common home.
We must form our negotiations team as soon as possible. We must organize training programs to introduce the relevant people to each other immediately. This is what the new EU members’ negotiators recommended to us.