"Eastern Edge of Europe: Van" Project Opening Meeting

The project entitled "Eastern Edge of Europe: Van" which is financed by the Ministry for EU Affairs within the framework of "Provinces Preparing for the European Union Programme" was publicized in a meeting held on 16th August, 2011 in the meeting room of Van Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

The Provincial EU Permanent Contact Point and Deputy Governor Hüseyin Demirbaþ, Ministry for EU Affairs Directorate of Accession Policy Coordinator Elif Kurþunlu, members of the Provincial EU Advisory and Steering Committee and NGO representatives were present at the meeting.

In her opening speech, Elif Kurþunlu remarked that each citizen from the smallest possible living units to the largest cities should be involved in the EU process and this makes the local governments, the backbones of democracy, indispensible actors and stakeholders of this process. Kurþunlu told that the "Provinces Preparing for the European Union Programme" aims to enhance the technical and administrative capacities of the "EU Units of Governorships" within the budget limits of the grant the Ministry for EU Affairs has allocated from its own resources and added "We aim at increasing the number of such projects. We established Provincial EU Advisory and Steering Committees in 81 provinces. It is quite important that we achieved this formation in a single year. We wish that you are our delegates where we are not able to go."

The Provincial EU Permanent Contact Point and Deputy Governor Hüseyin Demirbaþ gave information about the activities of the Provincial EU Advisory and Steering Committee and remarked that the only aim of the Ministry for EU Affairs is to offer its citizens the living standard comparable to that of Europe. Demirbaþ said that he believed Türkiye would attain an even better welfare than targeted in just a few years: "Türkiye is developing at a greater pace than EU Member States. The living standards it would attain would proportionately be better."

After the opening talks, Elif Kurþunlu made a presentation on "The Technical Characteristics of the Türkiye's EU Accession Negotiations and the Present Situation".