Turkey hopes to start opening EU chapters in March

Turkey hopes to start the process of opening chapters of the EU acquis communautaire in March, according to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking on Friday.

Turkey has 35 chapters to ‘negotiate’ between now and membership, although as others have pointed out, negotiations are somewhat of a misnoma, since all of the acquis communautaire has to be implemented.

Erdogan said that Turkey was now in the screening process. “I believe actual negotiations will start in March,” he said in a televised address.

Turkey has been engaged in the screening process since November, after EU leaders agreed in October that negotiations could go ahead.

However, progress could start slowly, since the chapter openings begin during the Austria Presidency of the EU.

Last September abd October Austria was pushing for an explicit alternative to Turkey’s EU membership in the form of a privileged partnership status.

Cyprus is also expected to block progress owing to Turkey’s continued blockade of Cyprus-flagged ships and aeroplanes.

Turkey is not expected to join the EU before 2013 at the very earliest.