ISTANBUL, Oct 20 (AFP) - An EU commissioner told Turks at a meeting here on Wednesday that Europe intended to keep its word over Turkey's entry into the European Union.
Industry commissioner Olli Rehn told delegates at a three-day parliamentary group meeting of Europe's Greens: "European leaders usually keep their word, it is a European tradition and it is what we intend doing this time, too."
The European Commission published a report on October 6 recommending that negotiations should begin on Turkey's eventual membership of the EU, while adding conditions and stipulating that end of the negotiating phase remained open.
Rehn told Turks in Istanbul that the objective of the Commission was indeed the adhesion of Turkey to the EU.
"Negotiations are by their nature open. At the same time if we are going to negotiate it so that we can get a result ... the objective is clear," he said.
He told his Turkish audience that the conditions laid out by the Commission were very similar to those that had been applied during earlier EU enlargements and that they were aimed at "supporting and making things easier for Turkey in the process of integration."
EU leaders will decide at a summit in Brussels on December 17 whether or not to open membership talks with Turkey.