Fra The Guardian:
Turkey to renew talks over European Union membership. With key opponent of Turkey's membership, Nicolas Sarkozy, no longer in office, EU commissioner to visit Ankara over policies.
Turkey is showing renewed interest in reviving its stalled bid to join the European Union, now that one of its key opponents is no longer the president of France.
Turkey began its EU accession negotiations in 2005 but made little progress in its candidacy, thanks to a dispute with EU-member Cyprus and opposition from the then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy argued that the predominantly Muslim country was not a part of Europe and wanted Turkey to accept a form of a special partnership with the EU instead of full membership – an offer Turkey rejected.
On Thursday Turkey and the EU are to open talks aimed at bringing its membership bid back on track, and the Turkish government announced this week that its parliament would soon vote on a series of draft laws designed to help advance its bid.
The EU commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Füle, is scheduled to visit Ankara, the capital, to announce the start of those informal technical discussions with Turkey on eight policy areas. The goal is to bring Turkey closer to joining the 27-member bloc when some member states' objections to Turkey's accession are lifted.
