Brussels, 13/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, is to visit Turkey in February as part of preparations for accession negotiations, which the European Council decided are to start on 3 October, provided, of course, that Turkey extends its customs and association agreement to all the new Member States, including Cyprus.
On Tuesday, experts from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the European Commission's DG Enlargement met in Brussels for initial technical talks to establish the framework for negotiations. They have not yet laid down a timetable for future meetings, but are to draft various documents, including the negotiation mandate and the partnership for accession. The European Commission will put forward a negotiation strategy to the Council, in three pillars: aid to the reform process; framework of negotiations; setting up of a reinforced political and cultural dialogue. The Member States will then formally adopt the negotiation mandate.
The "screening" will not start until the negotiations are officially underway. Under this process, the European Commission will look at a candidate country's entire legislation to see exactly how much of a gap there is between it and the community acquis, as the entire negotiation process is based on the alignment of the candidate country on the community acquis. Nevertheless, the European Commission is already examining all fields under the scope of the customs agreement between the Union and Turkey, a Commission source explained.
On Tuesday, Greece accused Turkey of having violated its territorial waters with two patrol-boats. "Conduct such as this is not consistent with the stance that should be held by candidate countries for accession in the European Union towards Member States, or with the European principle of good neighbourly relations", said a spokesperson of the Greek Foreign Ministry.