Brussels, 25/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine has written to Turkish Foreign minister, Ismail Cem saying that she had learnt "with great concern" of a press release by his ministry on the subject of the report by Luxembourg Socialist, Jacques Poos on Cyprus' membership of the EU, report since adopted by September's plenary (see Europe of 13 September, p.17, for the reactions by Mr. Poos).
"I can understand that the resolution meanwhile adopted by the European Parliament should seem critical of Turkey to you and that your perception of the problem of Cyprus should differ from that of our Rapporteur. It is not, however, acceptable that the good faith of the rapporteur should be placed into question, claiming that he had consciously contributed to deteriorating Euro-Turkish relations. I thus denounce with the greatest firmness the insinuation and character attacks of a strictly personal nature contained in the press release regarding an MEP whose skill and integrity are well-known", Fontaine continued. Finally, she then stressed the "unfortunate nature of this press release, hoping that it was a misunderstanding", and hoping that "such incidents will not happen again".