Earthtimes.org
March 13 2010

Spain hopes to accelerate Turkey’s EU talks, minister says

Posted : Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:10:25 GMT
By : dpa

Saariselka, Finland – Spain intends to accelerate Turkey’s talks on
joining the European Union by opening negotiations on four more legal
areas by the end of June, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos said Saturday. Spain currently holds the EU’s rotating
presidency and is tasked with leading accession talks until July 1.
Recent presidencies have only managed to open talks on one or, at
most, two legal areas in their six-month terms.

"The Spanish presidency has put into its agenda a strong commitment
towards Turkish accession to the EU," and hopes to open talks on four
more issues, Moratinos said.

Countries which want to join the EU have to bring their laws into line
with EU rules in 35 so-called negotiating "chapters."

Turkey has so far opened talks on 14 chapters, with another eight
frozen in its row with Cyprus.

Moratinos said that Spain hoped to open talks on education,
competitiveness, food safety and the all-important energy chapter, a
key portfolio because the EU sees Turkey as the best transit provider
of energy supplies from the Middle East.

Moratinos was speaking at informal talks with a handful of European
counterparts, including Turkey’s Ahmet Davutoglu, in the Arctic
Finnish ski resort of Saariselka.

The talks were partially overshadowed by a Swedish parliamentary
decision on Thursday to label the killing of Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey in 1915 as genocide.

Moratinos said that the question of the killings was a bilateral issue
between Turkey and Armenia.

Turkey has been negotiating to join the EU since 2005, but its
accession is opposed by key states including Germany and France.