PM has working dinner with Austrian president

[DeVilMaYcRy]

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Monday had a working dinner with visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer. Prior to the dinner, the two men had held talks in private. Earlier, President Fischer called a settlement of the political crisis in neighbouring Turkey on the basis of democratic principles, "which are of decisive importance for the European family" while spoking to reporters after talks with his host, Greek President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias. On Turkey's EU accession process, Fischer said it would be time-consuming, given that the country's progress in fulfilling EU economic and political criteria must be ascertained, adding that "it is even more difficult to predict whether, in the end, there will be some other form of (Turkey's) association with the EU". "What we are doing now, however, is supporting the entire process, as are all the other EU member countries," he said. Papoulias, replying to a question on the Kosovo issue, said it was a "very important European problem, and not just a Balkan one," adding that "a solution must be found that is satisfactory to both sides, not one 'imposed by above' but the product of agreement between the two sides".