The European Commission has approved its first reports on the
expansion of the European Union, which is the first document on the
topic after the Lisbon agreement on reforming EU institutions that came
into force on 1 December, 2009, Trend reports.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Stefan Fule, said that
expansion is in the interest of the union. He recalled that political
and economic standards for EU membership remain the same.
The commissioner said that Croatia is in the last stage of negotiating
membership, the same concerns Iceland. Yet Turkey does not suit the EU
executive authorities. Fule said that they are also considering the
Serbian request to join the union, filed in 2009.
The executive authorities of the EU will start negotiations with
Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, which became independent
from Serbia in 2008.
The Turkish State Minister and head of the Turkish delegation for
negotiations with the EU, Egemen Bagis, said in an interview with TV
channel Euronews that, sooner or later, Turkey will become a member of
EU.
Bagis believes that over half of the Turkish notes in the membership
file were frozen for political reasons.
Concerning Cyprus, the minister said that in January 2003, at the UN
summit in Davos, the Turkish premier assured the then UN Secretary
General, Kofi Annan, that Turkey and the Republic of Northern Cyprus
will make steps towards Greek Cyprus and Greece.
Commenting on the EU report, Bagis said that for Turkey it is the 13th
such report. The EU has been making such reports since 1998. Earlier,
Turkey was imputed for poor crime-case solving. Turkey had adopted
amendments to the Constitution and improved ties with ethnic and
religious groups, he said.
