MINISTER FOR EU AFFAIRS AND CHIEF NEGOTIATOR BAGIS MADE OFFICIAL CONTACTS IN MUNICH
In Munich, Egemen Bagis ,Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator, met with Franz Maget, the assembly group director of Social Democrat Party ( SPD) in Bavaria State Assembly and Christian Ude, the Mayor of Munich.
Minister Bagis first went to Bavaria State Assembly and there he met Maget, the assembly group director of SPD and other EU working group members in the assembly.
Stating that he had negotiated with the parliamentarians of SPD who supports Turkey's EU membership greatly, Bagis declared that they had handled the issues about not making discrimination to Turkey and at the same time not conceding a privilege towards Turkey.
Mentioning the pleasure of seeing an official governmental representative of Turkey in Bavaria State Assembly, Maget pointed out that they had supported the open-ended continuation of Turkey's full membership negotiations that is being carried out with EU as it was foreseen in the agreement of German Coalition Government.
Later, Bagis visited Ude, the Mayor, in his office.
Bagis said: "The existence of Turkish people occupying important positions in various platforms in Germany is in fact an answer to whether Turkey is inside EU or out of EU."
Minister Bagis stated that Turkey had been beneficial to NATO during the Cold War period and its membership would be that of beneficial to EU as well.
Regarding the mosque construction in Munich, Bagis said: "when citizens living in Germany believe in the mosque project, they will be able to find the resource needed for it."
Ude, regarding the same issue, stated that he had seen the best examples of living together by going around various religious places in Istanbul and added "The tolerance of Turkey among religions which has a very important role in EU relations is great. For this reason, I appreciate the construction of the mosque."
Within the framework of the Munich programme, Bagis also participated in the "45th Munich Security Conference" and afterwards he participated in the special dinner hosted by a well known lawyer Wolfgang Seybold which he holds annually with the purpose of Munich Security Conference.
August Hanning ,the Deputy of German Ministry of Interior; General James Jones, National Security Counsellor of Barack Obama, the President of USA; William Cohen, the former Minister of Defense of USA; Henry Kissinger, the former Foreign Minister of USA; Beate Merk, Minister of Justice of Bavaria State also participated in the dinner.