Turkish P.M. Defines His Meeting With French President As Positive

PARIS - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, actually in Paris for an official visit, said on Tuesday that he had a positive meeting with French President Jacques Chirac.
After a working luncheon hosted by President Chirac, Erdogan told reporters that France's support for Turkey's European Union (EU) membership bid was obvious after the EU Helsinki Summit of 1999.
Erdogan said that EU leaders would decide whether to open accession talks with Turkey according to the progress report EU Commission would submit in October.
Noting that the report might just be a green light to start the negotiation process and will have nothing to do with full membership, Erdogan said that Turkey had adopted reform packages and put them into practice to meet required criteria for opening of accession negotiations.
(BRC-ULG) 20.07.2004