By Filipe Rufino - 28th March 2007
EU ambassadors have given the green light to re-starting accession negotiations with Turkey, on hold since a row over EU demands for Ankara to open trade links with Cyprus.
Turkey is to start negotiations on Thursday on enterprise and industrial regulations, the second of 35 EU accession chapters.
The chapter will be a tougher proposition than the “science and research” chapter which Turkey and the EU closed after one day of talks in 2006, and negotiations are expected to last much longer.
But some MEPs are critical of the decision, pointing out that Ankara has failed to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, which prompted an EU freeze on the talks in December.
“It is a mistake to reward Turkey for breaching its agreement. The accession negotiations should only be resumed if Ankara opens up its ports and airports to trade from Cyprus,” said centre-right MEP Markus Ferber.
The European commission backed the ambassadors' agreement, arguing that talks on this dossier should start for technical reasons.
“Previous enlargements have shown it is important that negotiations on the most complex chapters start as early as possible”, a commission source said.
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