White House Daily Briefing Transcript

The
Danes and the President of the EU — the Danes are the President of
the EU, and will host an important EU summit in Copenhagen December
12-13. The President stated his strong support for Turkey’s
aspirations to begin negotiations to join the EU. The President noted
the very positive meeting he had with Turkish political leader Erdogan
here in the White House yesterday, and the President expressed his
hope the EU will seize an historic moment and respond to Turkey
positively and with vision.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
December 11, 2002

Q: The President this morning talked to the current President of the
E.U., the Danish Prime Minister, about the possibility of Turkey
joining the European Union. Could you talk a little about that
conversation? And also, it’s the view of the administration — you
said that yesterday — that the United States doesn’t want to
interfere in whether Turkey should go in or not. But why was the call
then made? I mean, the American view on this subject is hardly
unknown.

MR. FLEISCHER: I didn’t say the United States doesn’t want to
interfere. I said this is a decision the E.U. will make, and that the
President will call up and talk to foreign nations and foreign leaders
about his opinions on this matter. And I must have done this before
you got here, but I already read out the phone call from the President
to Prime Minister Rasmussen.