LISBON - Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said late on Tuesday that Turkey and Portugal were located in two ends of Europe and Turkey took important steps in closing to its European Union (EU) target.
Noting that those steps were more clear after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan started his term in office, Barroso said, ''your steps are considered pleasing.'' He emphasized that ally and friend Portugal, which desired to see Turkey closer to EU membership perspective all the time, would continue to sincerely encourage Turkey in its courageous reform activities.
Barroso said that he hoped that EU, which passed through a rooted reform process in itself and of which Turkey wanted to be member, would protect the values that made it EU. He added, ''An EU that is among equals, an EU in which the word solidarity has the true and real meaning...''
(GC-AÖ) 02.07.2003