Addressing a meeting of the Turkey-EU Joint Consultation Committee in Istanbul on Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that despite obstructions and all discouraging attempts, Turkey is marching on its EU path with the same decisiveness and enthusiasm.
Responding to criticisms that Ankara had slowed down the pace of implementing reforms needed to meet the EU’s membership requirements, Erdogan said Turkey was in a better position than some member states.
“There are countries, who haven’t fulfill their responsibilities under the Copenhagen political criteria as well as economic criteria, and the policy chapters of the EU acquis. What you are going to say about those?” he said.
The Prime Minister said his government planned to make all the necessary legal arrangements in Turkey to be in harmony with the EU acquis by the year 2013.
“We look at the year 2008 as the year for a leap towards the EU,” said Erdogan.
Turkey was a democratic, secular and social state based on the rule of law, he told the committee, adding that the country’s priorities were the economy, democracy, human rights and freedoms, domestic politics as well as foreign policies.
“Our priorities are complementary with the EU criteria,” he said.
