ANKARA - Turkish Parliament Speaker Bülent Arýnc left for the Netherlands on Thursday to attend the Conference of the Parliament Speakers of European Union (EU) Member Countries to be held in The Hague between July 2nd and 3rd.
Prior to his departure, Arinc told a press conference that he was visiting the Netherlands upon invitation of Frans Weisglas, the President of the Dutch House of Representatives and Dutch Senate President Yvonne Timmerman-Buck.
Recalling that the Netherlands would be the EU Acting President till the end of this year, he said that parliament speakers of all member and EU candidates would discuss development of interparliamentary relations, effects of enlargement on Europe and the world, and working methods of similar upcoming conferences.
Turkish Parliament's Speaker Arinc said that he would meet with Weisglas and Timmerman-Buck and expressed belief that his participation in the conference would be beneficial to Turkey since he could be in contact with his Dutch counterparts when the date the EU was expected to decide whether or not to start negotiations with Turkey was approaching.
Arinc pointed out that Turkish officials would have bilateral meetings in European capitals and important political centers from September to December to enable the EU to take a positive decision about Turkey in its summit due in December.
(BRC-ULG) 01.07.2004