Hungary to support Turkey’s EU bid

Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul after their meeting, Ferenc said that theyexpected the EU to give an open message to Turkey regarding the negotiation process (during a meeting of the European Council) on Dec. 17.
He said that Turkey’s EU membership bid was high on international agenda, adding that the two countries shared commonviews on the matter.

"We think that this process should be transparent, and thatsteps Turkey should take should obviously be listed. We also think that the process should depend on Turkey’s performance. Thus,Turkey’s performance can concretely be assessed, and a decision on(whether to open) negotiations can be made," he said.

"As a new EU member, we are ready to help Turkey. We want to share our experiences," he said.

He said that how long the negotiations would last was unknown,adding that Turkey should definitely be given a fair chance tobecome an EU member.

For his part, Gul said that there was no reason to assume anegative attitude toward the negotiation process.

He said that there was a positive report on Turkey, in this way,there is no any reason not to start negotiations on Dec. 17. Enditem