BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he was satisfied with amendments in an EU decision to start membership talks to provisions that foresee restrictions on the free movement of people.
"Those (provisions) were different before, but I can say that they were put into the desired shape as a result of the efforts we made," Erdogan said. "They will be now used if necessary, and if there is agreement between the parties."
The EU, seeking to allay fears of waves of cheap Turkish workers flooding Europe's jobs market, agreed to retain the right to impose measures including "permanent safeguard" clauses in any future accession accord with Turkey.
But the final version of the conclusions added a definition of such safeguards as "clauses which are permanently available as a basis for safeguard measures," putting the accent on them being available permanently rather than applicable permanently.
12/17/2004 17:45 GMT - AFP