Political Statements not to Affect Turkey Report

The E.C.’s statement was a response to French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who earlier had said, "Turkey’s membership discussions could take a really long time, maybe 10 years, maybe more,"

"The only thing we can say today is that the European Union Commission is preparing its report on Turkey," said the Commission’s spokesman, Reijo Kemppinen. "The report will be finalized before Prodi’s Commission duty ends. During the preparations, political statements will not be considered; only concrete and real developments in Turkey will be looked at."

Meanwhile, one of the Commission spokesmen, Jean-Christophe Filori, expressed pleasure at COREPER’s approval of the Cyprus bylaw.