Foreign Minister Tuomioja visits Hungary, Moldova and Turkey

Press release 275/2003
3 November, 2003


Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will visit Hungary and Turkey and attend the meeting of the Council of Europe Foreign Ministers in Moldova on 5-7 November.

Foreign Minister Tuomioja will meet his Hungarian counterpart Lászlo Kovács on Wednesday, 5 November. Their talks will focus on the negotiations of the EU’s intergovernmental conference.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 5-6 November, Tuomioja will attend the session of the Committee of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe in Moldova where the implications of the EU’s enlargement and the new consitutional agreement on European cooperation will be discussed. The meeting will also draft the agenda of the CE summit, scheduled for May 2005. Tuomioja will be the main speaker on both these key themes of the meeting.

Tuomioja will make an official visit to Turkey on Thursday and Friday, 6-7 November. His visit will be hosted by Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül. Tuomioja will also meet with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as representatives of the civic society.

Tuomioja and Gül will discuss bilateral issues, the relations between Turkey and the EU and a range of international and regional issues. The visit coincides with the publication on 5 November of the European Commission’s 2003 report on the Turkish progress towards membership.

Further information: Counsellor Vesa Lehtonen on the visit to Hungary, tel. 160 55438; Johanna Suurpää, Head of Unit, on the Council of Europe, tel. 160 56551; Päivi Hiltunen-Toivio, Head of Unit, tel. 160 55046, and Nicola Lindertz, First Secretary ,tel. 160 56146, on the visit to Turkey; and Marianne Huusko-Lamponen, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, tel. 160 55005.