Turkey's slowed European Union accession bid will take a step forward on Thursday when EU states and Ankara open talks on a second policy area, EU officials said. It will be only the second of 35 chapters that must be completed before Turkey can join the bloc, even though Turkey's EU accession talks started in October 2005.
The talks on the chapter covering enterprise and industry will be held in Brussels after EU ambassadors approved the step on Wednesday, said an official of the German EU presidency. "There was an agreement this morning and we can open that particular chapter," the official said.
Last December, the EU suspended talks in eight of the total of 35 chapters because of Ankara's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU member Cyprus, which Turkey does not recognise. The EU also said at the time that no chapters would be closed until Turkey opened its ports.
Even without the Cyprus issue, Turkey faces difficult talks for EU entry because some Europeans doubt the European credentials of the large, relatively poor and overwhelmingly Muslim country. Cyprus has often obstructed progress in Turkey's EU talks, in which unanimity is required among EU countries.
Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos had warned at the weekend that Cyprus might veto the opening of the new chapter because of what it called Turkey's "negative attitude towards Cyprus". European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said he hopes to see a total of four chapters opened during the German EU presidency that ends on June 30.
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