Brussels, 05/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The meeting in Brussels on Thursday between the new Turkish foreign minister Sükrü Sina Gürel and Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen was "in a constructive spirit" according to a spokesperson for the Commissioner. Diplomatic sources who had feared the meeting might have been more tense noted that the two men had not touched on the controversial subject (in Turkey) of the comments made by the European Commissioner in Elsinore at the Gymnich meeting of the EU's foreign ministers last weekend where Verheugen did not say that the EU would not give Turkey a date at the Copenhagen European Council on 12/13 December for starting negotiations but did query whether there was enough time to assess the implementation of the political reforms approved in Turkey in the summer, explained the spokesperson. As for all the candidate countries, what counts is texts actually being really implemented, added the spokesperson. Turkey still has to prove that the approved legislation on abolishing the death penalty and Kurdish rights will actually be implemented.
In an interview with the newspaper "La Libre Belgique", Sükrü Sina Gürel said he hoped to have a clear answer about the launch date for the accession negotiations for October. He said he was confident that with the reforms currently being carried out they satisfied the criteria for starting the negotiations. He added that the entire discussion focussed on what are known as the Copenhagen political criteria that have to be met before negotiations can begin. The Commissioner is in the process of assessing the reforms and it will be necessary to wait for the regular enlargement report on 16 October to get an overview. On Thursday, the Turkish foreign minister gave European Commissioner Günter Verheugen a timetable for the adoption ahead of the Turkish general elections on 3 November of legislation for the constitutional reforms approved in the summer.
The two politicians discussed the Cyprus question, ahead of the meeting in Paris on Friday between the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the two Cypriot leaders, Denktash for the Turk side, and Clerides for the Greek side. Commissioner Verheugen said he hoped the two sides would reach a solution. Cypriot negotiator George Vassiliiou was in Brussels at the end of this week for technical discussions on Cyprus' accession negotiations.
Gürel and Verheugen also had a brief discussion about the situation regarding Iraq, but this was not the main topic. The Turkish foreign minister said in La Libre Belgique that Yes, US intervention in the region would cause chaos.