Belgian Government Beside Turkey

BRUSSELS - Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour Laurette Onkelinx said on Wednesday that the Belgian government would support Turkey in Copenhagen and exert efforts for a compromise on a better approach than the joint proposal of France and Germany.
Onkelinx told A.A correspondent that nobody should be afraid of Turkey's European Union (EU) membership and that Turkey would have an extraordinary contribution to European culture.
Turkey had an innumerable cultural trump, Onkelinx said.
Onkelinx drew the attention that there was not a consensus in the EU and said that France and Germany proposed to evaluate the situation in 2004 and begin negotiations in 2005.
The Belgian government took up this proposal and Turkey's EU membership process in detail, Onkelinx noted.
Onkelinx stated that they debated whether or not to agree with the French-German proposal and what their stance about giving a date to open negotiations with Turkey would be.
As socialists, they thought that a double date was meaningless, they had to behave rapidly and proposed to give an early date, Onkelinx said.
Onkelinx pointed out that they agreed on that view, but that it would not be useful to make long statements without knowing whether there could be a compromise among EU members in Copenhagen.
The stance of the Belgian coalition government was ''to exert efforts for Turkey's EU accession'', Onkelinx said. Onkelinx noted that she ''had a shock'' when she heard the statements of Valery Giscard d'Estaing against Turkey and defined them as ''shameful.''
Circles in France and other European countries reacted to Giscard d'Estaing, Onkelinx said.
Onkelinx stated that d'Estaing caused reactions in favour of Turkey with his words and that d'Estaing's starting a discussion was useful for Turkey.
''Why should we fear of a culture which will enrich us? Christians used to be in the power in Belgium before us. We have to support EU adjustment efforts of Turkey,'' Onkelinx said.
Onkelinx noted that she did not see any approach or hear any word from the Belgian government defending exclusion of Turkey.
Otherwise, she said, the government was in a consensus supporting Turkey.
Onkelinx pointed out that they wanted Turkey to start accession negotiations before the date proposed by France and Germany and become an EU member sooner.
They were aware that a negative and offending approach to Turkey in Copenhagen would help those who were against the EU and who wanted to drag Turkey into another direction, Onkelinx added.