Malta supports Turkey’s bid for EU membership

There is no reason why Turkey should be excluded from the EU as long as the membership criteria were fulfilled and this has been Malta’s stand from the outset, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.

Dr Borg said there should be no question on whether Turkey should be part of the EU and that was why Malta was fully supportive of its bid.

“There is a set of criteria and if you fulfil them you have the right to join the EU. If Turkey is western enough to be part of Nato and European enough to form part of the Council of Europe, there should be no problem for Turkey to become an EU member state,” he said.

He was addressing the media after talks with Turkish Minister and Chief Negotiator of EU Affairs, Egemen Bagis, who was visiting Malta. Mr Bagis said Turkey greatly appreciated the support it had been receiving from Malta on its bid to become an EU member, following up on the association agreement it had signed in the 1960s.

He said his country was making great strides in this direction and “will become an EU member state thanks to Malta’s support”.

The two ministers discussed the need for Turkish nationals to be granted a visa to be able to visit Malta, which was not the case before Malta joined the EU but had to change because of EU rules.

Dr Borg said Malta would keep “doing its very best” to solve the visa issue.

“If there were no problems in the past, there should be no problem now with freedom of movement of Turkish nationals,” he said.

Malta had excellent relations with Turkey, which opened its first embassy in Malta in October 2009. Malta opened a consulate in Istanbul in March that year.

“These developments are a solid platform that should lead to further promote trade and investment between the two countries,” he said.

In a meeting with the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr Dagis said that the Turkish Prime Minister would surely accept an invitation to visit Malta with a delegation of businessmen to delve into the possibility of joint ventures in various sectors including ship repairing.