Accession Negotitations

Current Situation in Accession Negotiations

The Helsinki European Council of December 1999 granted the status of candidate country to Türkiye. European Council of December 2004 confirmed that Türkiye fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria which are a prerequisite for opening of the accession negotiations with Türkiye.

As agreed at the European Council in December 2004, accession negotiations have been launched on October 3, 2005 with the adoption of the Negotiation Framework by the Council of the European Union. "Negotiation Framework Document" takes account of the experience of fifth enlargement process and of the evolving acquis. The framework includes the principles governing the negotiations, the substance of negotiations, negotiating procedures and list of negotiation chapter headings.

This document consists of three fundamental elements on which the negotiations will carry out.

1- Fulfilling the Copenhagen political criteria with no exceptions and assimilating and speeding up the political reforms,
2- Undertaking and applying the EU acquis,
3- Establishing and strengthening the dialogue with civil society and in this regard undertake a communication strategy aimed at both the European and the Turkish public.

These three elements are being coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for EU Affairs by establishing distinct and specific mechanisms.

The launch of accession negotiations would not be possible unless Türkiye had not met Copenhagen criteria to a certain degree. From then on, Türkiye's progress is being closely watched by the EU.

Although economic criteria is not a subject in any of the negotiation chapters, the improvements in this area will present a point of importance due to its potential of being used as a criterion for the further opening of chapters. Therefore, it is Türkiye's duty to provide a sustainable economic policy, reduce monetary imbalances and fight inflation with fiscal discipline.

Accession negotiations describe the time frame given for Türkiye to fully and effectively adopt the EU acquis to her own legal system.

The EU acquis refers to the total body of the EU law. It is composed of roughly one hundred and twenty thousand pages.

It contains the treaties on which EU was formed, the changes to these treaties, the treaties that the previously accessed countries signed and the legislation enacted by the EU Commission, EU Council, European Community and EU Court of Justice.

The EU acquis has been categorized under 35 chapters . These chapters are as follows;

1) Free Movement of Goods
2) Free Movement of Workers
3) Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services
4) Free Movement of Capital
5) Public Procurement
6) Company Law
7) Intellectual Property Law
8) Competition Policy
9) Financial Services
10) Information Society and Media
11) Agriculture and Rural Development
12) Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy
13) Fisheries
14) Transport Policy
15) Energy
16) Taxation
17) Economic and Monetary Policy
18) Statistics
19) Social Policy and Employment
20) Enterprise and Industrial Policy
21) Trans-European Networks
22) Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments
23) Judiciary and Fundamental Rights
24) Justice, Freedom and Security
25) Science and Research
26) Education and Culture
27) Environment
28) Consumer and Health Protection
29) Customs Union
30) External Relations
31) Foreign, Security and Defense Policy
32) Financial Control
33) Financial and Budgetary Provisions
34) Institutions
35) Other Issues

The accession negotiations have begun with the first stage of the process, "screening". The main contributors to this process are Turkish bureaucrats and the EU Commission members. The main purpose of screening is to speed up the accession process. It is the process in which information on the legislation under the acquis is provided, the differences between EU legislation and legislation of the candidate country is determined, and a broad calendar of the accession process and the potential obstacles that may get in the way of this process are determined.

Shortly after the EU Accession Negotiations was launched on 3 October 2005, Screening Process was started with a meeting on the Chapter "Science and Research" on 20 October 2005. Screening Process for all negotiation Chapters was completed on 13 October 2006.

Upon the completion of the screening process for a given chapter, the EU Commission provides the member States a screening report. The assessments and propositions in this document play the vital role of determining whether the chapter is ready to be opened. In these reports the EU commission reviews the information given by Türkiye during the screening process and according to this information decides whether Türkiye is ready for the opening of the specific chapter. At the end of this document the EU Commission either suggests the opening of the chapter according to the given information or it presents opening benchmarks to be fulfilled in order for this chapter to be opened.