Babacan attends Turkey-EU joint parliamentary commission meeting

The 46th meeting of the Turkey-European Union Joint Parliamentary Commission was held in Brussels yesterday. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, EU Term President Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn and representatives from the member countries attended the meeting. Babacan said that Turkey's EU bid targets full membership and that all the countries confirmed this by statements of "accession" and "membership," which took place in the EU common position paper. Afterwards, Babacan held a joint press conference with Rehn and Rupel. Rehn said that the meeting referred Turkey's accession negotiations to be conducted more quickly and added, "Of course Turkey speeding up legal and democratic reforms is stated. At this point we call on Turkey to advance reforms." For his part, Rupel said, "Turkey's role in international relations has reached a very important level. I hope that at the end of this process, Turkey will be one of the most important members of the EU."