04/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - At the end press conference which closed the informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers this weekend in Lappeenranta (see other articles), the Finnish Minister and president-in-exercise of the Council of the EU, Erkki Tuomioja, has warned Turkey that if it fails to respect its commitments under the additional protocol to the Agreement on Customs Union (particularly on the opening of its ports and airports to separate operators), this would create a "serious situation" which could hinder continuing accession negotiations. If this was the case, it is clear that the accession negotiations on all chapters pertaining to the internal market could not be continued, Mr Tuomioja warned. He went on to state, however, that a crisis of such severity "is not unavoidable" (see other article on the vote on the Eurlings on EU/Turkey relations by the committee on foreign affairs of the European Parliament).