EU Enlargement Discussed at Prague TEPAV Director Sak stated that enhancing Turkey’s integration with the EU was critical for triggering a structural transformation of the economy.

PRAGUE – In a meeting held in the context of the Prague Enlargement Dialogue organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, TEPAV Director Güven Sak spoke about the benefits of the EU accession process for Turkey and ways to expand cooperation opportunities for Turkey and the EU in the process ahead.

Sak delivered a speech during a panel meeting titled “Enlargement as a Part of the EU Growth Agenda?” held in Prague on Monday, 22 October 2012. He stated that high trade volume within the EU’s own region was a result of the value chains created by EU companies and that the share of Turkish companies in the EU’s value chains had been increasing. Stressing that Turkey’s ties with Europe had grown after the Customs Union and the membership process, he maintained that Turkey’s export structure has grown in sophistication at the same time. Emphasizing that the 2004 scenarios had expected a 50% income convergence with the EU by 2020 while the target was reached in 2011, he said that this had been enabled by the expansion of economic relations between Turkey and the EU.

Expressing that Turkey still mattered for the EU because of its economic dynamism, geopolitical role concerning energy security, and its young population, Sak stated that the new opportunities brought about during the transformation process would help further strengthen the cooperation. He accentuated that Turkey was tapping only a small proportion of its renewable energy resources and was offering huge opportunities to investors in the area of green growth. In this context, he stressed that possible areas of cooperation could be the urban transformation process and raising energy efficiency.

Noting that the European crisis could cause permanent structural damage on the sophistication level of Turkey’s export goods, Sak drew attention to the key importance of the EU-Turkey relations for the advancement of Turkey’s industry.

During the panel session moderated by Radek Spicar, Vice-President of the Confederation of Industry in Czech Republic and Executive Director of Aspen Institute, other keynote speakers were Bernadette Gierlinger, the Deputy Federal Minister of Economy, Family and Youth of Austria; Peter Balas, the Deputy Director General of the European Commission Trade Department; and Martin Tlapa, former Deputy Minister of the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.