Friday, June 30, 2006

FT.com / Europe / Brussels briefing - Turkey to cloud Finnish presidency of EU

"Turkey to cloud Finnish presidency of EU

By George Parker in Helsinki

Published: June 30 2006 17:58 | Last updated: June 30 2006 17:58

Turkey was on Friday given a blunt warning that its talks on joining the European Union could be stopped this autumn unless it kept commitments to Cyprus and stepped up its reform efforts.

Matti Vanhanen, Finnish prime minister, admitted that the risk of a bust-up with Turkey threatened to cast a shadow over his country’s six-month stint at the EU’s helm, and said he would view the breakdown of the talks as a personal failure."

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