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the EP to a "first report" by the end of the year. Prat himself had asked the Delors Cabinet to clarify this, and had merely been told that it was "deliberately ambiguous". In Prat's view, the current strategy within the Commission was to produce an avis eventually which could be open to various interpretations, and would contain a range of options which the Council should then consider. Membership would not be the only option on offer, and other alternatives would be explored, with the possibility of revisiting the membership option at some later stage. Against this background Prat felt that it was still odds-on that the Commission would produce a full blown "opinion" by the end of the year, but the need for caution was clearly uppermost in Delors' mind. For his part Matutes had told the Turkish Parliamentary delegation he met in Strasbourg yesterday that the Commission "hoped to produce an opinion before the end of the year"; there had been no comment yet · so far as Prat knew from the Turkish side on Delors' remarks.
Makenham
19 January 1989
M A Pakenham
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