ISTANBUL
Turkish Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator, Egemen Bagis on Saturday said that the current EU term presidency was one of an entity that Turkey did not recognize and had no diplomatic relations with.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA), Egemen Bagis said that the EU Commission invested the "positive agenda" between Turkey and the EU so relations would not get interrupted.
As part of the positive agenda process, we have established working groups related to eight chapters in Turkey's negotiations, Bagis underlined.
We have achieved results regarding the visa issue that could not be reached in the past 15 years, Bagis noted.
EU member countries unanimously authorized the European Commission to begin talks with Turkey for visa-free travels by Turkish citizens, Bagis stated.
"At this point, the citizens of the Republic of Turkey are the only ones, among the citizens of other candidate countries, who have to apply for visas to visit the Schengen region," Bagis stressed.
"Visa regulations are one of the bricks on the wall between Turkey and the EU. We need to bring down that brick and do away with the wall," Bagis also said.
