Turkey will open accession talks with the European Union if a crucial European Commission report next month is acted on
Published:
10 September 2004 y., Friday
A start date remains uncertain, but insitutional officials say Brussels is set to recommend that Ankara has made sufficient progress with democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
On a visit to Turkey this week, Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen promised an objective report that would set no new conditions.
EU leaders will make a decision in December on this basis.
Yet predictions are that it will take at least 10 years before the mainly Muslim nation joins the bloc, even if negotiations go well.
By the time they are over, its population could equal that of the EU's most populous member state, Germany.
The latest alarm for critics of the Turkish government is its proposal to outlaw adultery - in stark contrast to reforms so far to conform with European norms.
The move has amplified fears of Islamic legal influences in the secular EU candidate state.
Šaltinis:
euronews.net
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Erdogan Participates In The Turkish - Russian Business Council Meeting
more »
LITHUANIAN AND ESTONIAN PRESIDENTS STILL UNSURE OF GOING TO MOSCOW ON MAY 9
more »
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakhstani counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed the final details of the process of delimitation of the border between Kazakhstan and Russia
more »
MACEDONIA AND ALBANIA TO FOCUS ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION IN 2005
more »
Fifth session of Uzbekistan-European Union Cooperation Committee, main executive body in implementation of provisions of the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between the sides, was held in Brussels, Belgium
more »
Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga has scheduled a two-day state visit to the Netherlands
more »
Ukraine's Supreme Court halted publication of the final results of last month's repeat presidential election until it examines an appeal from the defeated candidate
more »
Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko has insisted there will be no people's revolutions, whether "rose, orange or banana", in his country
more »
Ukrainian election officials declared Viktor Yushchenko the official winner of a presidential rerun vote
more »
Armenia and Azerbaijan will resume early next week internationally mediated negotiations that could mark a turning point in their protracted search for a mutually acceptable solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
more »