BRUSSELS - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met on Thursday with European Union (EU) Commissioner for research Philippe Busquin and EU Commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen.
Following the meeting, Erdogan and Verheugen held a press conference. Prime Minister Erdogan said that Turkey was going through an important period as its accession talks to EU would start at the end of 2004 and stated that Verheugen and he held a comprehensive meeting and he informed Verheugen about studies.
Noting that Verheugen and he exchanged views on four-way talks to be held in Switzerland on Cyprus issue, he said, ''as we always said, we reiterate our determination on this issue once again.''
Verheugen said that Erdogan and he discussed political situation in Turkey, the Middle East issue, Turkey's accession process to EU and Cyprus negotiations and noted that it was a very good meeting.
Replying to a question, Verheugen said that he did not make any statement to the public opinion on derogation in Cyprus dossier and stated that this issue was an issue which should be discussed as a part of the negotiation process and it was wrong to make any comment beforehand. Stating that EU was ready to help for fulfillment of conditions of an agreement which would come out, Verheugen said that EU had clear commitment that it would help both sides as long as democracy, supremacy of law and human rights principles were maintained. He added that they could assume a flexible attitude on this issue.
Verheugen said that the U.N. was responsible for changes which would be made in the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan and they were not interested in those changes and noted that they would say 'yes' to an agreement which would be approved by Turkish Cypriot side, Greek Cypriot side and motherlands.
When he was reminded of the statement of Erdogan who said that Turkey's accession talks to EU would start at the end of 2004, Verheugen said that if prime minister said such a thing, it reflected his self-confidence, his confidence that Turkey would fulfill Copenhagen criteria and noted that the commission also had a positive view on this issue. He added that the decision would be taken at the end of the year.
(EÖ-AÖ) 25.03.2004