Erdogan Meets Separately With Irish And Italian Prime Ministers

BRUSSELS - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met separately on Thursday with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Erdogan is currently in Brussels to represent Turkey in Intergovernmental Conference that takes place within EU Summit.
Erdogan told reporters that he came together with representatives of Liberal Democrats on Thursday and stated that they assessed their views on the EU summit in this meeting. Stating that they focused on the Constitution in the meeting, he said that qualified majority issue was still being discussed and it did not became clear.
Stating that Ahern and he assessed the process since Ahern visited Turkey in July in the meeting, Erdogan said, ''the following period will be a period which will form infrastructure for December 2004. Our relations with Ireland will be reflected to the summit in December 2004. We exchanged views.''
Erdogan said that he had a bilateral meeting with Berlusconi and stated that he explained his views on cultural values which were mentioned in the declaration which would be issued at the end of the summit. Erdogan said that he stated that in the meeting that Cyprus issue was mentioned positively in the declaration and positive views on Turkey were also mentioned in the declaration.
He stated that he did not have any talks on elections to be held in Cyprus in his meetings. When asked whether or not he was hopeful about 2004, Erdogan said that they should be hopeful to reach a result and stated that they were doing their best for this hope. Stating that 2004 was not an end, he said that they were doing their utmost for political criteria. Erdogan said that they would carry on their struggle till the very end and stated that they always said that they were fulfilling reforms not only for joining the EU, but also for improving living standards of Turkish people. Erdogan said that they noted that they did not think of separating from the EU family.
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said that he met with EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen and stated that they discussed every issue. Gul said that they took up the paragraph on Turkey in the declaration and added that they had some demands on this issue.
(EÖ-AÖ) 12.12.2003