BRUSSELS - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul attended on Thursday a luncheon hosted in honor of Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
European Parliament President Pat Cox, European Commission President Romano Prodi, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop, ELDR Chairman Graham Watson also participated in the luncheon.
Erdogan and Gul are expected to hold several meetings after the luncheon.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is expected to meet with European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana, EU Commissioner for research Philippe Busquin, and EU Commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen later in the day.
Erdogan and Gul are attending the spring meeting of the European Council in Belgian capital Brussels.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan left for Brussels for the spring meeting of European Council late on Wednesday while Gul came to Brussels from Buergenstock, Switzerland, where he went on Tuesday for the quartet conference to take place among Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Greek Cypriot side, Turkey and Greece to find a fair and lasting solution to Cyprus issue till May 1 on the basis of United Nations (U.N.) Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan.
(BRC-AÖ) 25.03.2004