06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said in an interview granted to the Stuttgarter Zeitung while he was in Stuttgart to hear Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's speech on the European Convention (see p.5), that he hoped the EU would recognise the serious efforts made by Turkey to strengthen democracy and human rights. In his view, this means that, during the European Council in Copenhagen in December this year, a decision should be taken to open "concrete membership talks with Turkey". In our experience, added Mr Yilmaz, "we predict that negotiations with Brussels will not go as fast as with other countries". He specified that he does not foresee EU membership for his country before 2010.