Poland: there is “no magic formula” to speed up Turkey’s EU membership talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - There is “no magic formula” to speed up Turkey’s slow-moving European Union membership negotiations, Warsaw’s top diplomat in Ankara said Friday, July 1, on the day Poland took over the six-month rotating EU presidency from Hungary, Hürriyet Daily News reported.

“There is no magic formula. These are things that have been going on for a long time. Some countries [such as Croatia] made progress faster than Turkey because they led negotiations in a way they could make progress faster,” Polish ambassador to Ankara Marcin Wilczek said. “We hope to see progress in the Turkish-EU accession negotiations. We’ll do our best as the presidency can do.”

The Polish ambassador, similarly, hoped progress would be made in this month’s talks. “Then many things will become much easier,” said Wilczek.

During its presidency, however, Poland “cannot engage [itself] in solving only one particular issue as this is an issue that concerns the entire EU,” Wilczek said, adding that the EU should also think about the western Balkans, Serbia and the eastern neighborhood.

Asked if Poland would come up with a plan to accelerate Turkish accession, the ambassador said it was too early to speculate.