ATLANTA
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said when Turkey started negotiations for EU membership, it was asked when Turkey would be ready but now the question was when the EU would be ready.
Visiting Atlanta, US to attend the "Turkey Investment Week", Babacan met with Federal Reserve Bank Governor and CEO Dennis Lockhart and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. Then, he delivered a speech on investing in Turkey at Emory University.
Babacan said Turkey applied tight policies during the crisis and still continued to grow. He added due to the reforms Turkey made, the effects of global crisis were limited on Turkey.
He said confidence issue was at the center of the global crisis. On EU, he said it was very hard to reach a reconciliation at the Euro zone among the 27 countries.
On Turkey's EU accession, Babacan said "I think we should wait for the crisis in Europe to end and EU gain its confidence back". He said Turkey was considered as a growing value by many European country, but 2-3 countries still have doubts. "Turkey would be among three countries having the highest voting power and that makes some countries doubtful" noted Babacan adding Turkey economically is in a better shape than EU criteria. He said EU was a real big strategic aim for them and they were persistent on that.
Meanwhile, Babacan visited the HQ of Coca Cola and had a meeting with CEO Muhtar Kent in Atlanta. Attending the dinner given by Kent in his honor, Babacan proceeded to Washington for more talks.
