Brussels, 02/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Mehmet Aydin, Turkey's Minister of State for Science, Technology and Information, called on the European Union, on Thursday 29 January, to open the doors of its European Research Area (ERA) to Turkish researchers. “To be even more effective in bringing added-value to the scientific community, we would like to see the abolishment of barriers to the freedom of movement of researchers. We, Turkey, are open to this and we strongly encourage the EU to implement necessary regulations in this respect”, he said during a conference at the European Parliament on research and development (R&D) in Turkey, jointly organised by ALDE and the Turkish research and business organisations. The minister also announced a programme of incentives for the European partners willing to invest in research in Turkey. Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research, said for his part that the increasing cooperation between Turkey and the EU was significant for moving Turkey forward along the road to EU membership. Increased cooperation in research may be a good tool for pre-accession, he said, pointing out that the chapter on science and research was one of the first to be opened, but above all the only one to have been provisionally closed (in June 2006) during EU accession talks. The commissioner then spoke of the major effort deployed by Turkey to take part in the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development (FPRD). He nonetheless felt that Turkey's participation in the programme could be “improved”. Ankara hopes to invest 2% of its GNP in research by 2010, while the EU's target is 3%. Better involvement also implies that research should have a better defined place in the Turkish national agenda, Mr Potocnik said, calling for Turkey to also develop its own research capacity. (B.C./transl.jl)