'EU IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT TRADE PARTNER'

Minister Kacır stated that Turkey is strengthening its role in Europe's value chain day by day with industrial production and export-oriented moves and said: "As a result of these steps, the trade volume between Turkey and the EU exceeded 196 billion dollars last year. The EU is currently our most important trade partner. In many sectors, our country has become the production centre of Europe. Today, as Turkey, we are the number 1 in Europe in the production of solar panels, white goods, commercial vehicles, flat glass and cement. In order to maintain the competitiveness of our sectors and to leave a livable future to our children, realising green transformation is at the top of our agenda. At this point, we have recently implemented concrete plans and projects. With the 'Green Consensus Action Plan' we prepared, we initiated our harmonisation process with the European Green Consensus. I would like to state that we are open to cooperation with the EU, especially with the IPA III Programme, to create concrete projects in the field of green transformation, which concerns the whole world.  The support to be provided to Turkey, which is in the EU supply chain, will make it possible not only for our country but also for our European stakeholders to achieve their green transformation targets."

'VISA PROBLEM HAS NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES'

Referring to visa liberalisation, Kacır said, "The current situation in the visa regime has multi-dimensional negative consequences not only for Turkey and Turkish citizens but also for the EU. We are unable to effectively utilise the potential for cooperation between Turkey and the EU due to the visa policy that hinders the goals and ideals of our industrialists who have a strong position in the European value chain, our scientists who actively contribute to European research, our entrepreneurs and engineers who support the technological development of Europe, and our young people who want to get to know Europe more closely. Our desire is for the EU to make concrete progress for visa liberalisation as soon as possible."

Varhelyi, on the other hand, stated that they aim to strengthen the EU's existing co-operation with Turkey in the field of science, research and innovation in order to advance Turkey - EU relations on a positive basis, that the Ministry of Industry and Technology has a key role in this process, and that they would like to establish strategic partnerships with Turkey in the field of high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, chip and clean energy technologies.