Bagis evaluates EU progress report on Turkey

Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul after the EU announced its progress report on Turkey on Wednesday, Turkey's Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said Turkey was disappointed with the EU Progress Report's section on political criteria. "I have to admit that despite all our efforts, the section of political criteria in this year's report is an especially huge disappointment for us. The EU's broken mirror is far away from reflecting the truth. The EU's report is only a reflection of efforts to delay Turkey's EU membership since the EU is in an economical and political crisis," Bagis said. Stating that the Greek Cypriot administration's intensive lobbying efforts in the EU as the EU term president has aggravated already disappointing points mentioned in the report, adding, "With this pessimistic approach, the EU, unfortunately, overshadowed the positive agenda that was launched in May." Bagis indicated that the report acknowledged the considerable progress Turkey has made in terms of harmonizing its standards and legislation with the EU acquis. "The European Commission found out that Turkey has made progress in 32 chapters. This is a fact. However, significant parts of the report, consisting unfounded and unjust statements that I used to hear from marginal ideological groups in Turkey and in Europe, is a grave contradiction. This is quite contradictory to the EU's own findings," Bagis said. Despite some criticisms of the report, Bagis vowed to not let the EU process end, underlining that full membership remains a key goal for Turkey.