Turkey won a green light from the European Commission on Wednesday to open membership negotiations with the European Union, a watershed decision after 40 years of on-again, off-again talks.
But the EU executive's recommendation carried several conditions, including the possibility of suspending talks if Ankara backtracks on democracy and human rights and of curbing any surge in labour migration once Turkey joins.
"The Commission's response today is 'yes'. ... However, it is a qualified yes," Commission President Romano Prodi told the European Parliament. "We are giving them credit, if you like, but that credit is not a blank cheque."
Prodi urged Turks to be patient in what would be long and difficult negotiations. A strong, self-confident Europe had nothing to fear from Turkish accession, he said.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Strasbourg, France, praised the Commission report as "balanced" and said he hoped talks would start early next year. Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country is president of the 25-nation bloc, said he expected negotiations with the Nato ally to open in the second half of 2005.
The Commission made the start of talks conditional on Turkey bringing into force outstanding legal reforms, notably of the penal code and criminal procedure, which are in the works.
Negotiations would be "an open-ended process whose outcome cannot be guaranteed beforehand", it said. It proposed no start date, leaving final decisions to EU leaders at a December 17 summit.
The prospect of Turkish membership, giving the EU borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran, is controversial across Europe. Public opinion is split on whether to accept a large, poor and mainly Muslim nation of 70 million with a patchy record on human rights into what has been seen by some as a "Christian Club".