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| The head of the European Commission (EC) said on Friday that neither a military regime nor a religious state had place in the European Union (EU). Marc Pierini, the head of the Delegation of the EC to Turkey, said that a military regime and a constitution formed by that military regime, and a religious state had no place in the EU. Countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal were kept at EU's doors until they abolished their military regime, Pierini said during a meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the central province of Eskisehir. Pierini said the rules Turkey had to obey during EU accession process were the same with those of other countries. However, EU's policies were increasing in time and the number of policies a country had to implement to become an EU member would increase in the following five-ten years, Pierini said. Pierini said it took some time to meet EU's conditions, and Turkey would be the second biggest country in the Union behind Germany when it joined the EU. Turkey would become the biggest country of the EU when it had a 82 million population almost ten years later, Pierini said. Pierini said Turkey had to correct its image in the EU and explain its realities to EU citizens and politicians. Turkey should also had to adopt EU reforms and acquis because the more progress Turkey made and the more reforms Turkey implement, the more difficult it would be for opponents to argue about Turkey's EU membership bid, Pierini said. Pierini said Turkey should support NGOs and defined the civil society in Turkey as younger than that in other EU member states. The civil society in Turkey should support EU membership bid more than others, Pierini also said. Turkey became an EU candidate country in December 1999. The union launched accession talks with Turkey on October 3, 2005. |