Turkey ready, awaits EU recovery: Minister

ATLANTA - Anatolia News Agency

The focus of Turkey’s European Union membership used to be whether Turkey was ready or not, but the main question is now when Europe will be ready, according to Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan.

“I think we’ll need to wait for the European crisis to soothe and for the EU to regain its confidence,” Babacan said during his public talk on “Turkey as a Manufacturing and Investment Hub for U.S. Companies” at Emory University in Atlanta.

“When Turkey began negotiations for EU membership, it was always asked, ‘When will Turkey be ready?’ But now the main question is, ‘When will the EU be ready?” he said.

EU aim commitment

The minister reasserted Turkey’s insistence on EU targets, saying these had considerable benefits for Turkey. “Many European countries see Turkey as a growing value day-by-day, even though there are still two or three worried countries,” he said. “Turkey is a very large country and the day it becomes a member it will have the third highest voting power [in the EU]. This worries some countries.”