Đstanbul, May 5, 2005 GLOBAL TREND-SETTERS AND DECISION-MAKERS IN KNOWDLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES Prioritisation: Where Should Turkey Focus Its Energies? OLLI REHN EU Commissioner on Enlargement In 2023 Turkey will have to conduct a significant number of major and both legal, political and economic reforms which are currently on their way and I would just like to point out two aspects. First of all concerning the legal reforms I think they are indeed well on their way but now it is important to keep up the momentum and maintain reform drive and implement the reforms also into practice. I think really there is no turning back not because of the EU but because these reforms are in the interest of Turkish citizens themselves and these decisions have been taken by Turkey itself. The second aspect is the economy, I would say that many old member states in Europe would envy the economic growth rate of Turkey for the moment but of course much more needs to be done to insure the conditions of prosperity for Turkish citizens especially to have more foreign direct investment which is still surprisingly low in the country therefore you need the legal predictability, legal certainty and you need fully transparent legal administrative proceedings in order to make Turkey once more attractive for foreign investors. If you allow me to just conclude by saying that we all know what needs to be done in the light of 3 rd of October when the negotiations will start and after the October the day, when we really start to negotiate and pave the way for Turkey s access to the EU. The road is very clear and in my country we have a saying that well planned is half done may be slight exaggeration but there is more truth in it, what I mean is that lets not get into the endless speculations which all columnists especially like in Turkey but lets focus on the essence on the conduct and work on the legal, political and economic reports and indeed let s just do it! Thank you very much. Question (Naci Ekşi): Ben de Sayın Başbakana ve Sayın Rehn e iki küçük soru soracağım. Şimdi Sayın Başbakanımıza soruyorum. Aşağı yukarı Yıldırım Bey in sorusu gibi ben de şöyle düşünmüştüm. Biz burada hep birlikte geleceğe bakıyoruz. Halbuki 2023 den bu tarafa yani gelecekten bugüne bakmak gerekiyorsa eğer o takdirde bizim Devlet Bakanı seviyesinde değil, belki bir Başbakan Yardımcısı seviyesinde bilim ve strateji kurumunu kurmak mümkün olabilir mi?
Sayın Rehn e soruyorum. Elbette AB ne girerken AB müktesebatına uyum için gerekli olanları yapacağız. Ama bazen bizim hassasiyetlerimize dokunuyorlar. AB müktesebatı için gerekli olanlara evet, ama hassasiyetlerimize dokunup da bir noktada hadi canım gidin işinize dedirtmeyecek kadar Türkiye nin AB ne girmesini istiyorlar mı? Mehmet Ali Birand: Olli Rehn hangi programa gitsek şu soru çok soruluyor: Sözde Ermeni soykırımını getirip de AB, bunu kabul edeceksiniz, etmezseniz giremeyeceksiniz diyecek mi demeyecek mi? Böyle bir şey olabilir mi? Aslında bunun cevabını verecek olan Komisyon değil. Bunun cevabı daha çok üye ülkelerin başkentlerinden ileride çıkabilecek seslerdir ama Olli Rehn herhalde bize ışık tutacaktır. Thank you very much, it is certainly a pertinent and legitimate question, I would differentiate between 2 things, first the conditions to start the negotiations and then the conditions in the course of negotiations them selves which are concerning the famous acqi communitaire and its full implementation. As regards to opening of negotiations there are two conditions which are very clear and I am very confident that Turkey will meet both conditions, first they re bringing into force the comprehensive legal reform of the new penal code and 5 other pieces of legislation which will reinforce the rule of law and the human rights in Turkey. This package will enter into force on the first of June and I am very confident that Turkey will meet this criteria. The second condition is the signature of the famous or infamous adaptation protocol of the Ankara agreement or adaptation protocol of the Customs Union agreement, which extends Customs Union to all 10 new members states of the EU including also the Republic of Cyprus. When we met with the Foreign Minister Gul 2 weeks ago it was clear to me that Turkey will sign this protocol well in time before the critical the day of 3 rd of October. Thus these two conditions will be met and the legal reform will proceed will be consolidated I trust that relations with the Republic of Cyprus will be further normalized and I must say that I found it very positive that Prime Minister Erdogan offered President Koceryan a possibility to open a comprehensive dialogue between turkey and Armenia on all relevant issues from the opening of borders to the issue of 1915. I hope that this constructive will dialogue will start and we live the results because it is also very much in the interest of Turkey to open the border with Armenia. It has significant economic impact besides for the EU good neighborly relations are one of the fundamental objectives and I am sure that Turkey will share this objective which was by the way also seen in Middle East where Turkey has suggested a bridge building role in the context of Middle Eastern crisis so there is a lot of positive developments and it is important to notice that good neighborly relations and constructive dialogue are certainly one part of the European integration. Mehmet Ali Birand: Olli bir yanlışlık olmasın diye sormak istiyorum. Soru şuydu: Ermeni konusunda AB nden bir koşul halinde Türkiye nin önüne gelebilir miydi? Bizim önümüzde Kopenhag kriterleriyle ilgili olmayan başka bir koşul getirilir mi? Ben 3 Ekim den bahsetmiyorum ama uzun vadeli olarak da böyle bir dayatma ile Türkiye karşılaşabilir mi? Soru buydu. I thought I was very clear, we have two conditions to start the negotiations and then apart from that reconciliation based on history and good neighborly relations are part of the EU and part of European integration and I don t like to set strong conditions and try to force people to do something. If things are moving in the right direction in any case and in my view at the moment there is a clear effort to enhance constructive dialogue with Turkey and Armenia and
I command Mr. Erdogan for that and I hope that both parties will proceed with this constructive dialogue and thus pave the road for better relations between. Question (Bahadır Kaleağası): Sorum Olli Rehn e olacak. Kendisi daha AB Komisyonu nun bilgi toplumu ve girişimcilikten sorumlu üyesiydi. My question will be may be little bit attained to your previous assignment at the Commission, Mr. Prime Minister very rightly stated that Turkey s contribution to EU s Lisbon goals for better global economic competitiveness will be very positive if Turkey can contribute to that. of course there are different subchapters of what to do in this respect including the reform of the information society linked area and reform of the educational system for better human capital in Turkey, how do you see in particular for a candidate country his accession process all these areas to develop not only for itself but also to be an asset for the EU Lisbon strategy? Question (Onur Metin): Avrupa Öğrencileri Forumu Đzmir lokalinden. Benim sorum Olli Rehn e olacak. As you all know NGO s have an important role in developing countries, how do you see the role of NGO s on the way of globally competitive knowledge society in 2023 and what do you think about current actions of NGO s in Turkey about EU programs and projects? Thank you concerning the first question I think Turkey can certainly be an asset for the whole of EU because of its being an attractive type of production and b having young and relatively capable labor force. Thus can be a win win situation if Turkey also can make those reforms that are necessary and live according to the rules of all the EU. This actually brings us back to the reforms I would just like to say that any country which has in EU succeeded in terms of high living standards and high employment they have first of all invested a lot in education and development like in Nordic countries, Denmark for instance they have also liberalized their market and enhanced genuine competition for instance in the field of telecommunications. In my view the conclusion for Turkey is that you have to think really carefully how to reform your educational system in order to make it adaptable to today s add tomorrow s needs and also you have to think about how to enhance competition and liberalization of telecommunication market for instance I am sure that the European business community is watching and has a very close eye attention of how telecom will proceed. It is a.test over how serious Turkey is about competition and liberalization in the field of information technology and telecommunication. Question (Şenol Taştan): Yozgat ticaret ve sanayi odası yönetim kurulu başkanıyım. Benim sorum da Olli Rehn e. 2023 yılında ekonomik anlamda ortadoğu ve orta Asya nın ekonomik gelişimi nasıl olacaktır? AB nin 2023 yılında ekonomik anlamda rakibi sizce hangi bölge veya hangi ülke olacaktır? Question (Savaş Ünsal): Intercom. Bu oturumdan evvel bir oturumumuz daha vardı. Bunun anlamı da Türkiye nin e-devlet ve diğer politikalarını 2023 için görüşüyorduk. Ancak, hepimizin beraber kabul ettiği bir konu vardı. E-devlet ya da teknolojiye giderken bilgi toplumuna giderken erişim şart. Yani bir serbestleşme özelleşme şarttır. Hatta bir örnek de Malezya dan vardı. 15 sene orada yaşamış biri olarak Malezya Telecom un serbestleşmesini 1986 senesinde yaptığını düşünürsek, 20 sene geçmiş. Biz 20 sene daha bakalım. Benim Başbakanımıza bir sorum var. Đkinci sorum da Sayın Olli Rehn e. Başbakanımıza 2023 senesine kadar Türk Telecom un özelleşmesini bekleyecek miyiz? Birtakım zorluklar olduğunu düşünüyorum. Sayın Olli ye sorum ise, Portekiz deki yapılan Avrupa daki teknoloji
konusundaki kararlar içerisinde ihracatçılarını ithalatçılarını daha teknolojik olarak rekabetçi kılmak için internet erişimine verdikleri destekten bahsedebilirler mi? Thank you, I ll try to be as brief as possible, which countries are Europe s commandos especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, I would say that from the European point of view I can t say until 2023 but in the next 5 to 10 years because it is very clear that US and rising Asia, China and also India are going to be the strongest economic commondos in he economic triangle and especially China, Asia have already become the industrial workshop of the world and that has caused a lot of insecurity and resource of adaptation in Europe which with growth and jobs strategy which is called the Lisbon strategy in the EU which aims at investing in innovation and competitiveness and conducting economic reforms in Europe so as to facilitate our competitiveness and higher living standards and better job creating in Europe. Concerning more specific role of Middle East and Central Asia on that I trust on Turkish expertise also in terms of our dialogue. We have already gained a lot from it, Turkey s political and economic expertise in that region in every ministerial meeting or in every council meetings we discussed these issues and it is indeed a win win situation where both of us can better understand the future development of this region and act accordingly and enhance our objectives. Concerning when is EU preparing for the accession of Turkey, the answer is all the time, they are preparing inside the EU with the institutions of the EU, in June we will present the negotiations mandate and we will present a proposal for a civil society dialogue between Turkey and Europe and then on the 3 rd October we will start the negotiations. Of course you are right tat we have to take into account our serious opinion and therefore civil society dialogue is particular and paramount importance namely Europeans need to know whether Turkey better with its strengths and weaknesses while you and all the Turks will have to know not only the benefits but also the obligations of EU membership. It is a two way street and the political and technical negotiations which may take quite some time will have to be complementing by another rail which is this civil society dialogue to make each other understand better what Turkey is and what EU is. One final point if the Mr. Chairman still allows me, we have studied the opinion surveys in EU countries and how do the citizens see the future prospective accession of Turkey into EU, there is one striking trend in this opinion surveys is that even though the differences are bigger between countries but never the less in every country in the EU where public opinion is surveyed the older generation is much more skeptical then the younger generation which means that young in Europe look at much more in favor of the accession of Turkey, perhaps they have less fears and they have more positive expectations of this happening. However I would nevertheless not recommend Prime Minister Erdogan, your government and your people to wait until 2023 until when the democratic tractor takes care of the problem, I think we have to invest in the civil society dialogue explain how Turkey develops and how it is conducting its reforms and we have engage ourselves into fair and serious negotiations. That is the best medicine to convince our people both in Turkey and EU. M. Ali Birand: One question that everyone asked, do we have until the 3 rd of October any problem, one problem that the signing of Ankara Agreement on extending Customs Union, we know that and Turkey promised to that, do you think that referendum in France if the nose are going to win, it is going to have on the negotiation? Would that delay the negotiations or it is something entirely different, we start negotiations and then we ll see what. It is very clear that the constitutional treaty and the referenda on the one hand and the announcement process of the EU into future enlargement process they are not linked by any means especially to open negotiations with Croatia and with Turkey was done last December
at the highest political level in EU that is the European Council and if something political leaders in EU believe and they tend to stick their word is that EU is a community of commitments and this means that on the condition that Turkey will meet two criteria and there will be continuous progress in the rest of the reforms then it is clear that start negotiations on the 3 rd of October 2005. M. Ali Birand: To follow up this question with keeping the words and I don t want to put another question on Cyprus, let s forget it that s happens in one way or another That is one think I try to warn you and rest of the columnists in Turkey that please let s not get into the endless seculations of the uphill struggle, we have a clear road map, we have certain conditions which have to be met by 3 rd of October by Turkey and EU will stick to its word, we ll start the negotiations.