Brussels, 03/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, has said that he hopes that Turkey will initial the protocol to the customs union agreement before the EU Troika's visit to Ankara on 7 and 8 March, said his spokesperson. The European Commission wrote a letter in January in which it called for this to be done by the end of February, said a diplomatic source. The extension of the EU-Turkey customs union agreement to the ten new Member States, including Cyprus, is a condition of the opening of negotiations on 3 October. The Turkish side has reaffirmed the commitment to sign the protocol before then. But “the system of initialling does not exist in Turkish legislation, we do not initial before signing”, said a Turkish diplomat. A Community source reports that it has been made clear that even if initialling does not exist in the legislation, this could, for example, take the form of an exchange of letters.
On 2 March, a Turkish delegation visited the Commission to discuss the draft text for this protocol. After this meeting, there are “still requests for clarification” by Turkey, a Commission source revealed. Talks on Wednesday focussed mainly on the definition of EU territory and its implications for Northern Cyprus, which is in the hands of the self-declared Turkish Cypriot Republic. Jean-Claude Juncker called on Turkey on Monday to sign the extension of the customs union “as soon as possible”, and minister delegate for European affairs, Nicolas Schmitt, was somewhat critical of Turkey's attitude.