Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has announced that negotiations to modernise a customs union between the two countries will resume next week.
Turkish membership in the EU has been an official candidate for 24 years, but recent stagnation in the admission process is due to EU worries about abuses of human rights and respect for the rule of law.
President Tayyip Erdogan urged for the resumption of Ankara’s accession discussions in July, saying full membership remained a crucial strategic goal for Turkey.
Fidan said at a news conference in Ankara after talks with EU enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said he and Varhelyi had agreed to continue talks on the customs union, which aims to guarantee unrestricted access for goods between the two sides.
The EU-Turkey customs union entered force in 1995 but is limited to industrial goods and processed agricultural products.
Varhelyi said his talks in Ankara had helped identify areas where the bloc and Turkey could start working immediately, adding that full membership required steps from Turkey on the rule of law and human rights.
“We agreed to tackle the most important outstanding issues that we can tackle already now without the modernisation of the customs union, so our colleagues will sit together and will start working immediately,” Varhelyi said.
The commissioner stated that his visit “confirmed that there is more than an openness” from Ankara to move the accession process forward, adding that the EU had lately received “a series of very positive messages” from Turkey on the subject, but that a “positive agenda” must first be formed.
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