"Dutch minister opposes EU balloting on Turkey
The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse Monday, December 20, 2004
THE HAGUE Foreign Minister Ben Bot of the Netherlands, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, on Sunday criticized French and Austrian plans to hold referendums on Turkish membership in the EU, saying such moves could keep Turkey out of the bloc.
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'I do not think it's very fair to move the goal posts in the middle of a match,' Bot said on Dutch public television. 'We have never said to the Turks, neither in 1999 nor in 2002, that a referendum would lie at the end of the process. We have to be fair.'
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