EU-Türkiye Conference held under the "Building a Knowledge Infrastructure in Mersin for EU Accession "project of Governorship of Mersin

EU-Türkiye Conference was held on 26^th November 2011 under the "Building a Knowledge Infrastructure in Mersin for EU Accession "project of Governorship of Mersin, which was granted under the "Provinces Preparing for the EU Programme". Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Mr. Egemen BAÐIÞ, Minister of Economy Mr. Zafer ÇAÐLAYAN and Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Mr. Mehmet Mehdi EKER attended the conference.

Following the opening speeches of Provincial  EU Permanent Contact Point Deputy Governor of Mersin Mr. Ahmet Hikmet ÞAHİN and Ministry for EU Affairs Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry for EU Affairs Dr. Mehmet CANGİR, under the moderation of Mr. CANGİR "EU Accession Process and Our Provinces" was debated in the first session. The second session was on "Türkiye's Accession Process to the EU" with the moderation of Prof. Dr. Ms. Beril DEDEOÐLU from Galatasaray University.

In his closing speech, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Mr. Egemen BAÐIÞ emphasized that 79 applications to the "Provinces Preparing for the EU Programme" were received and 25 of them were accepted including the project of Governorate of Mersin.  Illustrating the fact that ships departure from the port of Mersin have started to transmit the message of Türkiye along with the Turkish flag, Mr. BAÐIÞ said "Today the intensity in our foreign trade, increase in exports and being an inspiration for both eastern and western part of Türkiye; Mersin has a differentiating feature. It is our hope to see Mersin more active in the EU accession process."

Afterwards Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Mr. Mehmet Mehdi EKER underlined that the purpose of the EU accession process is to increase the quality of daily lives of the citizens. After the speech of Mr. EKER, Minister of Economy Mr. Zafer ÇAÐLAYAN took the stage and stated that Türkiye is already integrated to the EU on many different issues and is successful economically.

Conference was ended with the TÜMSİAD-KOSGEB certificate ceremony in which Minister Mr. BAÐIÞ, Mr. ÇAÐLAYAN and Mr. EKER gave the certificates to the 32 trainees.