EU Talks the next chapter

Next Tuesday, Turkey's bid to join the European Union will creep forward one more inch.

The EU and Turkey will open formal talks on taxation, one of the 35 "chapters" or policy areas, that a candidate for EU membership must complete before joining.

Egemen Bağış, Turkey's chief EU negotiator, is pleased but, unsurprisingly, not overwhelmed. Visiting Brussels on Thursday, Bağış made it plain that he strongly favored EU membership. "I believe that the European Union is the grandest peace project in human history, and the crown of this peace project will be Turkey's accession," he told me and some other Brussels-based reporters over lunch. But entry into the EU is indisputably a long way off. Bağış recognized that Turkey would not complete all 35 chapters by 2014. Even then, there would be huge question marks over the readiness of countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands to approve Turkish membership. Western European political parties opposed to Turkey's accession performed strongly in the recent European Parliament elections.

Article Source: Financial Times Saturday 27th 2009

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