Downing Street Says

» Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Turkey

Asked about Turkey and how difficult the negotiations would be, the PMOS replied that there were two important points. Firstly, this was not the EU Council, as that would come later in the month. What we used today’s meeting for, however, was to find out what Turkey’s position was in the run-up to the EU Council. We were aware of the position of other EU countries, and what we were therefore trying to work out was how we helped move things forward. People were aware of the difficulties, and what we needed to find was a way forward, and we would use the period between now and the EU Council to try and find that way. If we could help in our way, then we would.

Secondly, what the Prime Minister had said was that he had made a distinction between short term concerns and long term interest, and it remained very much our view that it was in the long term interest of the EU as a whole that Turkey did become a member. That had been our consistent view, and that remained our consistent view, and we would try to work to make that possible. There were, however, things that Turkey had to do, and there were things that had to be negotiated, and that process must continue.

The PMOS said that whatever happened in December, we wanted to see the process of moving Turkey towards membership continue, but we had to try and work out how that would happen.

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