Parliament speaker: Turkey is already EU country

Turkey's Parliament Speaker, Cemil Cicek, asked on Friday for France's support for Turkey's European Union membership bid, during his meeting in capital Ankara with Jean-Louis Debre, the President of the Constitutional Council of the French Republic, Anadolu Agency reported.

Cicek said admitting Turkey into the 28-member bloc would be a strategic decision towards "creating a liveable world."

"Turkey is already an EU country. It's unfortunate that this is still debated," Cicek said.

France's President Francois Hollande visited Turkey in January and said his country is ready to support the opening of a new chapter in accession negotiations.

The EU and Turkey opened a new chapter in November last year - Chapter 22 on regional policy - after a three-and-a-half-year period of sluggish progress.

Debre said Turkey's path to the EU lays in bringing the legal system closer to that of the EU.

"We can never build the EU without Turkey. Maybe the road ahead is not easy, but there is a will; there is a claim," Debre said.


/Trend/