Litouwen wil als voorzitter van de Raad van de EU actief bijdragen aan vooruitgang in toetredingsonderhandelingen met Turkije (en)

On 12 September in Vilnius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius and Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bağış discussed Lithuania’s Presidency of the EU Council, prospects for the EU-Turkey accession negotiations, as well as other important issues related to the EU-Turkey relations.

“In today’s global reality we can once again state that the European Union and Turkey are extremely important, active, and reliable political and economic partners. Turkey’s success of European integration is, undoubtedly, the success of whole Europe. Therefore, both sides of the table are interested in making Turkey’s accession negotiations run smoothly and constructively,” L.Linkevičius said.

According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Lithuanian’s EU Council Presidency gives special attention to the enlargement policy and progress in the EU-Turkey accession negotiations.

“We hope that by the end of the year we will have added more dynamic to the negotiation process and achieved tangible progress in individual chapters,” L.Linkevičius said. The Foreign Minister also assured his Turkish counterpart that Lithuania was ready to continue to contribute to Turkey’s preparations for EU membership and to share its expert knowledge related to European integration.

During the meeting, L.Linkevičius invited Turkey to sign a readmission agreement with the EU opening a visa liberalisation dialogue between the EU and Turkey, thus providing a positive impetus for the entire negotiation process.

The meeting also discussed important global political issues.

During the visit, E.Bağış and other Chief Negotiators from candidate countries are taking part in the informal meeting of the Council Working Group on Enlargement (COELA) on 11-12 September in Vilnius. Meetings with the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs of the Seimas (Parliament) Gediminas Kirkilas, and representatives from the European Institute for Gender Equality were also held.