Ankara maintains its commitment to a full European Union membership even though the bloc has not kept its promises, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, a day after an EU report criticized Ankara on its judiciary and economic state.
"With this reform document, even though the promises given to us were not kept, we express our commitment to the full EU membership process," Erdogan told a program at Bestepe Congress Center where he unveiled the country’s Judicial Reform Strategy Document.
"We believe that the completion of the EU negotiation process, which has been ongoing since 2005 despite everything, bears importance for Europe at least as much as it does for us," Anadolu Agency cited the Turkish president as saying.
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession talks began in 2005. However, negotiations stalled in 2007.
