The Assembly of European Regions (AER) has indicated it is prepared to do more to help Turkey on the path to EU membership.<\/p>\n
Speaking as the organisation’s general assembly got underway in Istanbul on Thursday, AER president Mich\u00e8le Sabban said it was symbolic that this year’s conference was being held in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Her comments came after the European commission released its latest report on Turkey’s EU accession bid, which called for more to be done on press freedom and minority rights.<\/p>\n
“Our presence here is significant,” Sabban said.<\/p>\n
“To choose Turkey to celebrate the general assembly\u2026 is a strong message about what we believe Europe is.”<\/p>\n
She added, “It is an important political gesture.”<\/p>\n
Sabban said that Ankara has been exchanging experiences with Europe through the AER since joining the organisation in 2006.<\/p>\n
While she acknowledged that “many countries are asking rhetorical questions in terms of equal opportunities”, she insisted that the AER was “ready to work on a regular basis and to do more”.<\/p>\n
Asked by TheParliament.com about the EU’s recent progress report, Sabban said, “It’s not for us to comment on the European commission’s stance or declarations.<\/p>\n
“Our only reply is our presence here. Europe through the presence of its regions is the only reply we can bring.”<\/p>\n
Speaking at the opening session, Hasan H\u00fcsamettin Ko\u00e7ak, the president of Istanbul’s provincial council, said the city represented a “cross-road of civilisations where cultures blend”.<\/p>\n
“If the AER helps us move forward toward the EU we are glad to be part of it,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership is “about to move forward in terms of democratisation”.<\/p>\n
Turkey has been an official EU candidate country since 2005, but negotiations have been delayed as a result of slow domestic reforms and resistance from some member states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Assembly of European Regions (AER) has indicated it is prepared to do more to help Turkey on the path to EU membership. Speaking as the organisation’s general assembly got underway in Istanbul on Thursday, AER president Mich\u00e8le Sabban said it was symbolic that this year’s conference was being held in Turkey. Her comments came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":776961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[835],"tags":[4199,4255],"class_list":["post-25565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-aer","tag-the-assembly-of-european-regions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}