Bulgaria is backing Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said Thursday, according to a statement from his office.EU member Bulgaria supports all countries in the region, including Turkey, in their EU membership bids,the statement quoted Stanishev as saying during one-on-one talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But Erdogan also said that Turkey expected “that the European Union would remain faithful to the engagements undertaken towards Turkey; the statement added.Turkey started negotiations to join the bloc in 2005, but a year later Brussels froze talks on eight of the 35 policy fields that candidates must complete before accession, over a disagreement on Cyprus.

France and Germany have proposed a “privileged partnership” instead of full membership to the Muslim state, a compromise already rejected by Erdogan who warned the European Union not to become a club of Christians Erdogan arrived Thursday on a two-day official visit to Bulgaria, where he was scheduled to meet President Georgy Parvanov and the leaders of the coalition partners in government, former king Simeon Saxe Coburg and Turkish-minority party leader Ahmed Dogan.

He was also to open a complex of glass plants belonging to Turkish glass giant Sisecam in the northeastern town of Targovishte later Thursday and visit the southern region of Kardzhali Friday.

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