Brussels, 24/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the launch of the European Council, the EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, highlighted the importance of sending a signal that was as positive as possible to Turkey, first of all at the Brussels Summit and then again at the Copenhagen European Council. Both messages, stressed Solana, had to be genuinely encouraging in the run-up to the upcoming general elections in Turkey (3 November) and call for reforms to be implemented in the country.
In Berlin on Wednesday, the German foreign minister Joschka Fischer assured his Turkish counterpart Sukru Sina Gurel (who was on an official visit to the German capital) that Germany would do all in its power to ensure that the European Council in Copenhagen gave as positive a signal as was possible over the launch of accession negotiations for Turkey to join the European Union.
At this stage, the conclusions of the Presidency at the European Council in Brussels are expected to simply note the "remarkable" progress recently made by Turkey in terms of both respect for human rights and economic reforms, commenting that these developments advanced the case for opening accession negotiations with Turkey and were likely to pave the way for the "next stage" in the procedure of Turkey's application to join the EU to be considered in Copenhagen.