Les négociations avec l’UE peuvent être débloquées, selon le négociateur turc[en][de] 

Bagiş was speaking in Brussels on 7 October just before he left for Paris, where he was due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy together with Turkish President Abdullah Gül. 

He called Sarkozy's idea of a 'privileged partnership' with Turkey (EurActiv 08/05/09 and 11/05/09) "insulting" and "horrible", but added that his French colleagues had promised never to use the term again. 

Five chapters of Turkey's EU accession negotiations are currently being blocked by France, while three are being held by Austria and Germany. 

The chief negotiator said his country had been promised full membership and was therefore requesting "nothing less, nothing more". 

"I checked the 100,000-page acquis," Bagiş said, referring to the EU's lengthy body of approved legislation. "There's nothing besides membership. There is no alternative to membership. It doesn't exist." 

"What President Sarkozy used to say […] does not exist," stressed Bagiş, adding that "his colleagues promised me not to use those insulting, those horrible phrases again". 

Although he insisted that the Cyprus problem was not directly related to Turkey's accession negotiations, he admitted that a positive development in the island's reunification talks could lead to an unblocking of Turkey's negotiating chapters. 

"Hopefully by February they will come to an understanding that both sides can accept, and I can assure you, that any solution that is accepted by the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots will have the full support of the Turkish nation." 

"As long as the two communities on the island agree, we will back the agreement," Bagiş said, insisting that his country was not patronising Turkish Cypriot negotiator Mehmet Ali Talat. 

Bagiş offered many arguments in favour of Turkey's EU integration, but refrained from specifying the date he would like to see his country join the EU. 

He also suggested that there may be "another option" for his country to get closer to Europe, but that EU membership was Ankara's "plan A". 

Bagiş was speaking to EurActiv's Georgi Gotev.

To read the full text of this interview, please click here.