Turkey may join eurozone when it bounces back, says Turkish minister

WASHINGTON – Anatolia News Agency

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan. AA Photo

Turkey may want to join the eurozone after it has established properly functioning mechanisms, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has said.

“When there is a complete and serious eurozone, Turkey may want to participate in it someday in the future,” Babacan said during a panel discussion “The Eurozone: Has the Crisis Ended?” organized in Washington by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Financial Times.

Among the participants of the panel discussion were Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, Dutch Finance Minister and President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem, and French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici.

The discussion considered possible ways to emerge from the current global economic crisis, with the focus particularly on the impact of the economic crisis on EU member states.

Pointing to the current structural problems of the eurozone, Babacan said the eurozone could only become functional if there were correct rules and appropriate enforcement mechanisms.

Nevertheless, he still praised the union and its currency, describing the European Union as a “grand and historic project,” according to Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT. He added that in the end the euro would circulate in the markets as the common currency, in line with the well-settled financial rules and mechanisms, the report said.

The international participants of the conference highlighted the economic development that Turkey had shown in the past 10 years. Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett said the EU should be “grateful” that it had neighbors like Turkey, which could give them “common sense advice.”