Turkish parliament speaker Cicek met high level officials in Brussels

Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek, who is Cicek is attending EUREKA Inter-parliamentary Conference hosted by the European Parliament, met President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives Andre Flahaut on Thursday. Cicek met Van Rompuy at the European Council and came later together with Flahaut at the Chamber of Representatives. In the morning, Cicek held talks with President of the European Parliament (EP) Martin Schulz and attended the EUREKA Conference. EUREKA Conference Speaking at the conference, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemic Cicek said that Turkey's influence within EUREKA was on rapid rise thanks to research and development activities. As the term president of EUREKA between July 2012 and June 2013, Turkey has made contributions to the EUREKA as a global cooperation mechanism, Cicek said. Turkey is among the countries inEUREKA whose influence is constantly on rise with 120 firms, 42 projects and a budget volume of 50 million USD, Cicek stated.Also speaking at the conference, Turkish Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergun stressed that the world economy, and primarily Europe, was going through a difficult period. Those countries which encourage industrial production and extend support to small and medium scale businesses show a better performance than those who do not encourage industrial production and who do not extend support to small and medium scale businesses, Ergun underlined. We must treat the production leg seriously in order to establish a sustainable economic model in the world, Ergun also said.