EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule yesterday said the Commission would continue to press for approval of the direct trade regulation (DTR), considering its legal base sound despite the opposing view of the legal services of the European Council and Parliament.
Speaking at the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, attended by Turkey’s EU negotiator Egemen Bagis, the Czech commissioner said the legal basis did not imply recognition of the breakaway regime in the north. He added that discussion on the issue would continue at the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament.
He also called on Turkey to implement the Ankara Protocol to boost accession negotiations with the EU. He said the key to unblocking the eight chapters frozen in the negotiations was in Turkey’s hands and depended on full implementation of the Ankara Protocol. A Cyprus solution would also provide impetus to Ankara’s accession path, he said.
Fule expressed hope that the EU Belgian Presidency will be able to open the Competition chapter by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the Cypriot and Greek MEPs present at the Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting walked out after remarks by Bagis on Cyprus.
The Turkish minister reportedly spoke about “two states, two peoples and two parliaments” in Cyprus. Referring to the Cyprus Republic, he said he didn’t even know if he could call it a state.
Cypriot MEPs Takis Hadjigeogiou, Eleni Theocharous and Antigoni Papadopoulou and Greek MEPs George Koumoutsakos and Niki Tzavela intervened and asked that the provocative references by the Turkish Minister were excluded from the minutes of the meeting.
The Committee Chairwoman did not respond to their request and the five MEPs walked out of the meeting in protest, but only after Bagis had already left the room.
According to Hadjigeorgiou, Bagis had made similar remarks earlier, only to be reminded by Fule that the Cyprus Republic existed and was a member state of the EU.
i wonder if youtube will fill of videos of them walking out lol
