“The state of negotiations is very disappointing,” Günter Verteugen, former EU enlargement commissioner, told a group of journalists on Monday, after a meeting with the state minister and Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış, in Istanbul’s Ortaköy neighborhood.
Verheugen said it was crucial to keep the process alive and remove any obstacles. “As far as the Cyprus issue, which is one of the main obstacles, the EU has the obligation to implement what it promised in 2004 to the people living on the island,” he said, referring to the EU’s guarantee that Turkish Cypriots would not be victims in the case Greek Cypriots said no to the 2004 referendum on a United Nations Organization’s plan to reunite the island.
“It is not only a promise, this is decided and written on the status book,” Verheugen said, the Cyprus issue had to be solved immediately for negotiations to speed up.
The former commissioner also praised Turkey’s economic progress in the last decade. “Turkey is the fastest growing economy in Europe today, and I think this is important, especially regarding the argument that ‘Turkey would be an economic burden [for the union] if it joined the EU,’ so much more is made of this in the EU political debate.” Verheugen said he believed the key to Turkey’s economic success had been its political stability.
Regarding leaving Turkey outside of the European Commission’s draft EU budget for 2014-2020, Verheugen said he believed the EU was not trying to give any negative political message to Turkey. “The budget [for Turkey if it becomes an EU member within this period] can be accommodated, if negotiations are concluded. It is not the most important point [regarding negotiations].”