Brussels, 25/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of the Liberal Group in the European Parliament, made up, among others, of the Group's President Pat Cox, and British Liberal-Democrat Andrew Duff, Vice-President of the EP's Delegation for relations with Turkey's Grand National Assembly (the President is the German Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit) is in Turkey until Thursday.
Before leaving, Mr. Duff announced that he would be placing emphasis on the importance the EU attached to "fundamental rights and to liberal democracy". "The message I want to deliver is that we are all minorities in the European Union. Nationalism, militarism, torture and corruption are incompatible with European integration", he said, considering that, "if our paths genuinely converge, the prize for both Turkey and Europe are very great in terms of justice, security, ecology and prosperity". As for the current prison crisis, Duff said that Turkey had to accelerate its reforms of the prison system and release all political prisoners, but that "prisoners should stop their hunger strikes".
May we remind you that Alain Lamassoure (French, UDF) is the new EP rapporteur on Turkey, following the withdrawal of Philippe Morillon who did not agree with the amendment raising the issue of the "Armenian genocide" adopted in plenary during the voting on his report on EU/Turkey relations.