BRUSSELS, June 23 (UPI) -- The president of European Commission, contrary to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's expectation, has raised doubts about Turkey's entry into the EU.
José Manuel Barroso also ruled out early changes to the EU budget, another issue promoted by Blair, the International Herald Tribune reported Thursday.
Barroso's comments were the first on the economic bloc's expansion from the current 25 members since France and the Netherlands rejected its draft constitution. Many experts think Turkey's membership issue was one of the main reasons for the rejection.
Barroso said the EU could not ignore "the signal that was sent by the electorate regarding Turkey," the Herald Tribune said.
He also rejected Blair's call for reducing farm spending as a condition for striking a deal on a new EU budget, saying that would risk destabilizing the union.
"Questioning an entire policy and saying this is a sine qua non for solving the budget problem, that is not on," Barroso said.
