Turkey hopes Greece will continue supporting its EU bid

ANKARA

EU Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said they hoped this support would turn into concrete steps with the opening of new negotiation chapters. AA Photo

Turkey’s newly appointed EU Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Jan. 2 expressed hope that Greece, the bloc’s new term president, would continue to support Turkey’s membership bid and that new chapters would be opened during its presidency.

“We aspire to open at least one chapter, but prefer more than one, during the Greek term presidency,” Çavuşoğlu said at a meeting with Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Loukakis, whose country has taken over the six-month-long rotating presidency of the EU on Jan. 1. “Greece supported Turkey’s EU process in the last 10 years, under all conditions,” said the minister. “Turkey welcomes Greece’s priorities for its six-month-long presidency including financial issues and structural reforms,” Çavuşoğlu said.

Greece has identified growth, employment and illegal immigration as the country’s main priorities during its presidency. When asked about Greece’s budget to assume the presidency, the ambassador said, “We will try to organize a very successful presidency with the limited resources,” Anadolu Agency reported.

Çavuşoğlu said they hoped this support would turn into concrete steps with the opening of new negotiation chapters. Loukakis congratulated Çavuşoğlu on his new post and assured that his country’s support would continue. Meeting with EU ambassadors two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu expressed that Ankara wanted to open chapters 17, 23 and 24 during the Greek Presidency.