[**claire**]

Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said on Monday, ''I think that result of Sunday's referendum in France on the EU Constitution will affect its domestic policy first, then it will cause some problems in the EU.''



Arinc, who paid a state visit to the United States upon formal invitation of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, returned to Turkey.

Holding a news conference at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Arinc said, ''I think that result of Sunday's referendum in France on the EU Constitution will affect its domestic policy first, then it will cause some problems in the EU. I hope that the EU will overcome such problems.''

Arinc said that result of the referendum in France would not have a serious impact on Turkey's EU membership bid.

He added that also Dutch citizens could reject the constitution in upcoming referendum in their country.

TAN ON REFERENDUM ON EU CONSTITUTION IN FRANCE

''The negative attitude of the French people towards the European Union (EU) Constitution is a matter concerning domestic dynamics of France, not Turkey's membership'', Namik Tan, the spokesman of Turkish Foreign Ministry, said on Monday.

Answering a question on yesterday's referendum held in France on the EU Constitution, Tan said, ''time to time problems were seen on the path to European integration, but European nations had always overcome these problems. We believe that the European Constitution will be ratified with common sense.'' Tan recalled that Turkey's membership bid was used as a tool of internal politics by several circles during the referendum campaign, and added that Turkey had increased the level of its preparations for full membership negotiations to be launched on October 3rd.

[**claire**]

British Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw called Turkish Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul on Monday, assuring him that negotiations between Turkey and the EU would start on October 3rd.



According to diplomatic sources, Straw told Gul that they did not agree with arguments in France over Turkey's EU membership.

Meanwhile, Gul reiterated that Turkey was determined to preserve its reform process.

Gul added that they would maintain their preparatory efforts for opening of negotiations with the EU on the basis of the Treaty of Nice.

[Shannon]

We've got the feeling the Netherlands will give a no vote too! Still when the Treaty of Nice arrived, Ireland in complying with the national constitution had to vote on the issue and voted no. A few months later we had another vote and it was a yes vote! There may still be hope but theres a lot of scare mongering going on at the moment, there always is at these times!