There are still a lot of contacts between the EU and Turkey, but Turkey's accession to is not Europe's priority, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said today during the 53rd Munich Security Conference, the head of the European Office of Vestnik Kavkaza Orkhan Sattarov reports.
First of all, he noted the things that unite Turkey and the European Union today. "Above all else, I'm talking about geographical location, and Turkey is a very important strategic partner for Europe from this point of view. If we are talking about trade, Europe is the main trading partner for Turkey. 600 thousand people in Europe are working for Turkish companies. As you can see, there are very close ties between us, and our cooperation has always been very active, the energy sector is a great example of this," he said.
The issue of Turkey's accession to the EU remains a stumbling block in the relations. "Any candidate country should correspond the highest standards. Based on the development we saw in the past few years, it does not contribute to Turkey's accession to the EU. This is a sovereign choice of Turkey," he noted.
Overall, the EU will continue to be pragmatic in the relations with Turkey. "The EU is very interested in stable Turkey. The stability of our neighbors is the main concern of the European Union, because we are surrounded by the belt of instability from both east and south," he said.
According to him, difficult situation in Ankara is bad for Europe, since it's interested in strong Turkey. We hope to have great and fruitful cooperation with Turkey, but, frankly speaking, the issue of Turkey's accession to the EU is not our priority, there are more important topics in our cooperation," he concluded.
