Minister calls Turkey EU’s clean air area

PARIS - Anatolia News Agency

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Turkey is Europe’s clean air area, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said yesterday in Paris, referring to the positive economic outlook for the neighboring country.

The minister noted that last year when Europe grew 1.5 percent, Turkey grew 8.5 percent.
“If Turkey was the 28th EU country, the EU would have grown 1.8 percent,” he said.

The European Union will benefit from accepting Turkey into the union, “if Europe ignores Turkey, Turkey will not lose from it,” he said.

Asked about EU-Turkey relations, he said the EU had an insincere attitude toward Turkey that can be understood from visa regulations and visa applications by Turkish business people.

He said that when Turkey reaches its 2023 targets, it will be the one to decide whether to become a member country of the bloc. “We will continue on our way to the EU. We are not accepting these arrangements and regularizations for the EU, we apply them in Turkey because Turkey and the Turkish people deserve all these,” he said.

Touching on Turkey’s development he said, “Turkey has changed a lot in the past decade.”
In Paris the minister met with representatives of French firms and held bilateral talks with them.