Erdogan, Gul to attand EU Thessaloniki Summit

In the evening, the Turkish leaders will attend a dinner hosted by Greek President Costis Stefanopoulos in honor of the EU leaders. A final declaration to be released at the summit’s conclusion reportedly includes warm messages regarding Turkey’s EU membership bid. Bulgaria and Romania, which are set to join the Union in 2007, as well as Turkey, are to be invited as observers to the Inter-governmental Conference scheduled to begin its work this October in Brussels. Normally, only candidate countries with accession talks scheduled are invited to this conference. The final declaration reportedly also praises Turkey’s ongoing efforts to fulfill EU criteria, due to be evaluated in December 2004, where Ankara’s accession talks could also be scheduled.