Bot: Turkey could join EU in 2015

If everything goes as scheduled, Turkey could join the EU by
2015, according to Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot. Meanwhile,
French President Chirac believes that a “third option” is also
feasible.

While the Presidency is busy compiling an inventory of the
EU member states’ positions on Turkey’s membership bid, Dutch
Foreign Minister Bot said that, barring unforeseen
events, Turkey stands a fair chance of entering the EU as a
full member in 2015.

“Let’s say if we start the negotiations in 2005, if there are no
unforeseen circumstances […] and if Turkey goes on on the way of
reforms, and I don’t see any reason why they should not be able to
fulfill the criteria, we estimate that the negotiations could last
about 10 years,” said Bot. 

Asked by journalists whether the target date of 2015 for
Turkey’s entry was indeed realistic, Bot reportedly replied
with an affirmative “yes”.

Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac has raised a “third
option” for Turkey. “There is a third hypothesis that in three to
four years, things have progressed but there are still obstacles
that we will not surmount. We will therefore need to find another
solution, to create a sufficiently strong link for our ambitions
for peace and co-operation but without integration into the EU,”
said Chirac. 

In an exclusive interview with the Turkish
paper Zaman, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
said that it was important for Turkey to receive a negotiation
start date before the end of 2005. He said that he was strongly
opposed to a “privileged partnership” scenario, and argued against
postponing negotiations with Turkey until after the EU-wide
approval of the new Constitution.

The leaders of the EU member states are scheduled to decide at
their 17 December summit whether to open accession negotiations
with Ankara.

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