Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of the European Union (EU), Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay, said, “People in EU candidate countries need to feel that they are a part of the EU.”
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) organised the third “EU Meets the Balkans Conference” in the capital Sofia.
At the conference, the EU candidacy and accession process of the Western Balkan countries was discussed.
ALDE Co-Chair and European Parliament Member İlhan Küçük made the opening speech of the conference.
Küçük explained that ALDE is a political organization that represents the interests of 70 parties in the EU and outside.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bozay attended the conference’s panel titled “Accelerated Integration, Investments and European Security.”
Bozay, in his speech here, pointed out that the issues of integration with the EU and accession to the EU are different from each other and said, “Turkey’s role is very different, especially in terms of investments made in Europe’s security. The largest KFOR quota in Kosovo belongs to Turkey. If Turkey had not meticulously fulfilled the requirements of the Lausanne Treaty, the events in the Straits would have been very different.”
Bozay, who pointed out that energy security issues are a part of national security, said, “As seen in the Black Sea region, all states (here) are interconnected in terms of security, climate and environment. Therefore, we need to pay attention to how resilient these states will be in case the EU’s expansion process is interrupted. People in EU candidate countries need to feel that they are a part of the EU.”
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel said in her speech: “I want to look into the faces of our friends in the Western Balkans and tell them that ‘you are among friends here’.”
Stating that they want the issue of the Western Balkans’ integration into the EU to always be at the top of Europe’s agenda, Gabriel said, “We want the accession processes to be accelerated in a way that will benefit the entire EU.”
