Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-20-Speech-1-110"
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"en.20100920.19.1-110"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members of Parliament, I would like to thank Mr Kazak for having prepared this balanced and fair report on trade and economic relations with Turkey. I also wish to thank the members of the International Trade Committee for their valuable contributions to this report.
Thank you for your attention.
While the mainstay of this report is the EU-Turkey customs union, other issues are covered – such as road transport, quotas and visas – which I prefer not to dwell upon as Trade Commissioner.
I do not have to remind this Assembly that Turkey is a very important economic and political counterpart for the EU. Indeed, Turkey is the EU’s seventh trade partner and the EU is the main trade partner for Turkey. Moreover, Turkey is the sole country with a sizeable trade with which the EU has a customs union. In addition to this, Turkey is a candidate country. All of this accounts for a truly unique bilateral relationship.
The legal framework of EU-Turkey trade relations is the customs union. As noted in the report, the customs union has been instrumental in developing our bilateral trade for the benefit of both parties. However, a number of difficulties remain, many of which result from Turkey’s failure to properly and fully implement the customs union, thereby causing major and increasing trade problems which have remained unresolved for many years. In contrast, the European Union has fully implemented the customs union.
Some years ago, the Commission offered Turkey the opportunity to deepen the customs union and to conclude additional agreements that would cover
services and public procurements, but our offer was not accepted by Turkey.
The Commission is ready to make the necessary moves to continue to enhance bilateral trade relations with Turkey. I am ready to further consider with Turkey ways to address Turkish concerns relating to the free trade agreements concluded by the EU with third countries. At a technical level, significant work is being done to provide our Turkish partners with information on progress in negotiations on trade agreements with other countries. We have also included a reference to the EU-Turkey customs union in the relevant impact assessment studies. We regularly encourage Turkey to inform us, in a timely manner, of its sensitivities and concerns. Furthermore, we inform our free trade agreement (FTA) partners of the EU-Turkey customs union and insist that they also conclude an FTA with Turkey. This commitment by the EU-FTA partner is generally included in the relevant agreement, either as a full article or as a declaration.
It is true that we are facing problems with some Member States that are reluctant to see the inclusion of such language in our FTAs. I regret this situation, but I can assure you that I will continue to do my best to ensure that the EU-Turkey customs union continues to function well.
Let me say very clearly that we are facing some resistance and unwillingness from Turkey to implement fully the customs union. The report clearly highlights those areas and measures taken by Turkey that are not in line with the customs union. I trust that this report will help motivate Turkey to take the necessary positive steps to improve the overall functioning of the customs union and to come forward to negotiate additional agreements that would strengthen our bilateral trade and economic relationship.
I would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that I am personally committed to enhancing trade relations between Turkey and the EU. In June this year, the Turkish State Minister for Foreign Trade paid me a call and we agreed to stay in touch regularly. He recently invited me for a meeting in Ankara in the coming months – an invitation I will accept in the hope that we will make progress in resolving quickly, sustainably and in a friendly way, the continuing trade problems."@en1
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