The European Commission has launched the Positive Agenda with Turkey not as a substitute for its EU accession negotiations, but as a tool to strengthen the reform process in Turkey, Peter Stano, Spokesman for EU Commissioner for the Enlargement, Stefan Fule, has stressed. 

In statements Thursday to CNA from Brussels, Stano said that the EU launched the Positive Agenda with Turkey in May this year “not as a substitute for the accession negotiations. It is not to replace the accession negotiations but to complement them and to strengthen the reform process in Turkey”.

Stano was invited to comment on a statement made by Turkish Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis that Turkey continues its EU accession negotiations in an even more active manner this semester, not with the EU Presidency (Cyprus), but with the European Commission through the Positive Agenda.

Fule`s Spokesperson noted that the Positive Agenda was endorsed by the EU Member States and by Turkey and recalled Commissioner Fule`s statement that “The Positive Agenda is a bridge but not above or around the accession negotiations. It is a bridge leading towards them.”

As regards Turkey`s stance to freeze its relations with the Presidency of the Council of the EU (held by the Republic of Cyprus), Stano said that the EU “has expressed its clear opinion on the Turkish position not to cooperate with the presiding country quite clearly and it has also repeatedly called on Turkey not to boycott one of EU’s fundamental institutional features”.

“Still, relations between Turkey and the European institutions continue and so does the work on the Positive Agenda between the Commission and Turkey”, he went on to say.

Commenting on Bagis` statement that the Commission has made steps towards Turkey through the Positive Agenda which has not taken for any other country, Stano said that the Positive Agenda is first of its kind with an accession country, since Turkey is first of the candidates where it was not possible to open any new chapter for a longer period (two years) which has a negative impact on the entire process and creates frustrations on both sides.

“That is why the Commission came up with the idea of a Positive Agenda to bring fresh dynamics into the EU-Turkey relations”, he concluded.

The Republic of Cyprus, which entered the EU in May 2004, holds the six monthly rotating presidency of the Council of the EU until December 2012. Turkey, a candidate country for accession in the EU, is the only country in the world which does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus and has decided to freeze any relations with the EU Presidency during Cyprus` term. Turkey invaded Cyprus in the summer of 1974 and since then Turkish military troops occupy 37% of Cyprus` territory.