Turkish Foreign Ministry: EU membership is strategic goal for Ankara

Ankara on Wednesday rejected the European Parliament's "unilateral and by no means objective" 2019-2020 report on Turkey, a resolution it passed earlier in the day.

Passing such a resolution at a time when efforts are being made to revive Turkish-EU relations on the basis of its EU membership perspective within the framework of a positive agenda "is unacceptable," said a Foreign Ministry statement.

"We reject this biased text which not only includes false allegations regarding human rights, democracy, the rule of law, our governmental system and political parties; and views Turkey's effective, solution-oriented, humanitarian and enterprising foreign policy as a threat," Daily Sabah cited the statement as saying.

The ministry also underlined that the EU membership is a strategic goal for Ankara and would benefit all of Europe and beyond, adding that Turkey will "decisively" continue its efforts in line with this objective.

It also highlighted that as a candidate country, Turkey expects the European Parliament to carry out "constructive efforts" about how relations can be improved with Ankara and how it can contribute to Turkey's EU integration process."