Reacting to Turkey's referendum result yesterday in support of constitutional reforms, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP, Germany), spokesperson for the ALDE group on EU-Turkey accession negotiations in the foreign affairs committee said:

"This is a step in the right direction on Turkey's road to democratic reform. The majority of the 26 articles of the Constitution that have been modified increase the rights of citizens v-à-v the State and limit the influence of the military over civilian rule. However Turkey must remain vigilant as regards the separation of powers between State and judiciary in order to guarantee the independence of the latter."

"This is good news for Turks and for Europe, though much still remains to be done. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating in so far as what is important is how these changes will be implemented and interpreted in practice."

For his part, Andrew Duff, member of the EU-Turkey delegation also welcomed the result and underlined that "the Government must now move to settle the Cyprus question whilst the CHP party needs to transform itself into a progressive pro EU party supporting the accession process."

For more information, please contact:

Neil Corlett: +32-2-284 20 77 or +32-478-78 22 84

e-mail: neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu

Axel Heyer: +32-2-284 47 03 or +32-485-10 33 39