Latvia supports the opening of European Union membership talks with Turkey, the Foreign Ministry press office in Riga reported after a meeting of its minister Artis Pabriks with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul

Latvia supports the opening of European Union membership talks with Turkey, the Foreign Ministry press office in Riga reported after a meeting of its minister Artis Pabriks with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. Pabriks said "on accession of Turkey the role of the EU in the world will increase", according to the Baltic News Agency (BNS) "Turkey can serve as a bridge between the West and the East", added the minister. The two men stressed that meeting the EU requirements would be a hard and time-consuming process. "Negotiations take time, I do not know, it may take 10 years, for big countries it takes time, as for Spain it took eight years," Gul acknowledged Thursday after meetings in Tallinn on the first leg of a tour of the three Baltic states. A report of the EU Commission to be issued on October 6 will form the basis for a decision by the 25 leaders in December on whether to begin membership talks with Turkey, the only EU candidate that has failed so far to begin negotiations with the 25-member bloc. Expectations are rising that the Commission's report will be positive.