Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.15
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Accession into the European Union (EU) has always been, and will remain priority for Turkey, Kanal7 TV channel quoted Turkish Minister for EU Affairs Volkan Bozkir as saying on Oct.15.
He said as long as Turkey and EU have common goals and tasks, the relations between them will remain at the same level.
He expressed hope that the common goals will allow Turkey to be closer to the EU and help to become a full member of this organization.
Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci earlier said that the country will hold a referendum on accession to the European Union.
He said currently, Turkey is carrying out reforms on accession to EU and it may hold a referendum on this issue at the appropriate time. The official negotiations on Turkey's accession to the EU started in 2005.
Earlier reports indicated that around 75 percent of the country's population supported Turkey's accession into the EU, but more recent reports show this percentage decrease to 20 percent.
Turkey has fulfilled 65 percent of its commitments to the EU for accession to this organization.