Turkey Determined To Accelerate Eu Talks

The Turkish minister for EU affairs is having talks on Tuesday with European diplomats and politicians in Strasbourg with a brief to accelerate EU accession talks.



Volkan Bozkir is also scheduled to meet officials in Brussels on Thursday in an effort to set out a strategy to accelerate the negotiation process following his talks in Strasbourg.



Bozkir's visit comes as the EU is set to release the next progress report on Turkey in the forthcoming days. 



He said earlier that the next report should be functional both for the EU and Turkey, warning that an "inappropriate tone" in the report would cause more problems. 



Bozkir was in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon last week, seeking support for Turkey's accession to the 28-member bloc. 



Negotiations for Turkey's accession began in 2005 and Turkey must comply with 35 chapters setting out reforms needed to become a member. So far, only 14 have been opened while 17 remain blocked and a further four are yet to be discussed.



Turkey continues to pursue EU membership and aims to open negotiation chapters 23 and 24, on "judiciary and fundamental rights" and "justice, freedom and security" respectively.



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