EU Opens Two New Chapters in Turkey's Accession Talks

The third meeting of the Accession Conference with Turkey at ministerial level was held in Brussels, in 26 June 2007. The Turkish delegation was led by Minister of State and Chief Negotiator Ali Babacan, the head of the European Union delegation was Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's Federal Foreign Minister and current President of the Council and on behalf of the European Commission, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn attended the conference.

In the Conference two further new chapters was opened for negotiations with Turkey, namely the chapters on "Statistics" and "Financial Control". Meanwhile, the Chapter on "Enterprise and Industrial Policy" was confirmed at ministerial level, which was previously opened at deputy level in March 2007.

For the Chapter on "Statistics" two closing benchmarks and for the Chapter on the "Financial Control" six closing benchmarks were determined in technical issues.    

In return for the previously presented Negotiating Position Papers by Turkey on the Chapter "Education and Culture" and "Economic and Monetary Policy", European Union could not finalize its Common Position Paper yet.

For information on negotiations click here.