PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac explained the common attitude of Germany and France to Prime Minister of EU Term President Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday.
Speaking in a joint news conference after the meeting, Chirac said that they would wait for Turkey to fulfil the conditions related to Copenhagen criteria until December 2004 and if this is the case, full membership talks can start with Turkey in July 2005. ''Concerning France and Germany, we thought our position could be the following: December 2004, a meeting of sorts to examine... whether Turkey fully respects the Copenhagen criteria. Should this be the case -- start of negotiations from July 2005,'' Chirac said.
Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen said that he would submit a fair proposal about Turkey after listening to all the views about Turkey in the EU capitals which he visit. Noting that Turkey is a candidate country and it will be assessed with the same criteria with other candidate countries, Rasmussen said ''whenever Turkey fulfils the criteria, the full membership negotiations with it will start.''
When a French reporter reminded Chirac about the campaign carried out in France against Turkey's membership, Chirac said that Turkey is a NATO country, a strong ally of Europe and a EU candidate country.