PM lashes out at EU for keeping Turkey at door for decades

In strongly worded remarks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Tuesday expressed Turkey's disappointment over the slow pace of membership negotiations with the European Union and called on the EU to offer a rationale for this situation, as Turkey is already doing its part to adjust to the EU acquis. "There is one fact I would particularly like to underline here," Erdogan told a dinner in Istanbul for the Global Economic Symposium. "That is the fact that our application to the EU dates back 50 years. No other country has been kept waiting at the door of the EU (so long). And to date none of our European friends has been able to give us the answer to this question: Why do you keep Turkey waiting at the door?" In a long speech, Erdogan elaborated his criticism of the EU and also spoke on Turkish foreign policy.