IKV organised a conference in capital of Romania, Bucharest, within the scope of its project entitled “EU Presidencies and Turkey” that has been continuing since 2009. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı and Romania’s Minister-Delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba attended the conference entitled “Turkey and EU Relations: Challenges and Prospects”. The conference was held in cooperation with European Institute of Romania which is one of the prominent think tanks of the country and supported by Turkey Businessmen Association (TİAD) just before Romanian Presidency of the EU Council that is expected to start in January.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı, Romania’s Minister-Delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba and IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytioğlu delivered speeches. Ambassador Kaymakcı emphasised that Turkey’s main purpose in its relations with the EU is full membership and other alternatives such as strategic partnership cannot be accepted. Kaymakcı expressed that having no progress in accession negotiations weakens the EU’s persuasiveness. Deputy Minister reminded that Europe’s borders are the one Turkey has with Syria, Iraq and Iran and therefore underlined Turkey’s role in abolishing the threats the EU encounters with.

Romania’s Minister-Delegate Ciamba especially defended that contacts and cooperation among NGOs and think tanks should be developed to improve Turkey-EU relations. Ciamba mentioned that Turkey’s EU adventure has started with the Republic and Atatürk and emphasised Turkey’s irreplaceable contribution to make the EU a global actor. Moreover, Minister-Delegate laid emphasis upon their determination to work for improvement in Turkey-EU dialogue during Romanian EU Council Presidency.

IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu attracted notice to the importance of the fact that Turkey’s Black Sea neighbour Romania is going to assume the Presidency of EU Council for the first time and underlined his belief that the relations with Turkey will improve during Romanian Presidency. Zeytinoğlu indicated that revitalisation in accession negotiations is going to bring Turkey’s contribution to the EU’s security and welfare to the maximum level. IKV Chairman laid stress on three areas that might provide for improvements in Turkey-EU relations in the short term. After having emphasised the significance of the modernisation of the Customs Union, provision of visa liberalisation and the continuation of refugee cooperation for revitalisation in relations, but Ayhan Zeytinoğlu expressed that these kinds of cooperation cannot constitute alternatives for membership objective.

IKV Vice-Chairman Prof. Haluk Kabaalioğlu who assumed the moderatorship of the conference brought deep-rooted history of the relations forward and remarked that the blockage on Turkey’s accession negotiations due to Cyprus issue is unacceptable. Subsequent to mentioning the negative effect of visa obligation of Turkish citizens on the functioning of the Customs Union, Kabaalioğlu underlined that the rise of far right parties and leaders also hinders Turkey’s integration.