Turkey Proposes EU Pick Chapter At Random To Open

Turkey's European Union Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkır has said Turkey is ready to open within two months any chapter of the EU acquis to be chosen at random by the 28-nation bloc, the Hürriyet daily reported on Monday.

“I always voice this [issue] during my discussions with EU commissioners: Put all the chapters that haven't been opened in a bag and draw any of them. We are ready to open any chapter that comes out of the bag within two months,” said Bozkır on Monday according to Hürriyet, citing the Anadolu news agency.

In his remarks to Anadolu in Davos, the EU minister said that opening chapters is no longer an issue for Turkey and it is in a position to close all chapters within two years. He signaled that Chapter 17, which focuses on economic and monetary policy, may be opened this year; however, he added that “there may be blocks for political reasons.”

Stressing that the EU has to take its share of responsibility for opening chapters on Turkey's membership, Bozkır said: “We will be pleased if they open [chapters], if they don't, we have been already conducting our studies for eight years and we improved the level [of democracy] of Turkey, we didn't make Turkey to lose time.”

Bozkır noted that the EU Commission will decide whether to lift visa restrictions for Turkish citizens traveling to Europe in the next two years and underlined that if the visa liberalization talks fail, Turkey could cancel the readmission agreement, which aims to tackle the flow of illegal immigration to Europe, in six months.

“We will be in cooperation with the EU in the fight against illegal migration and the control of borders with the readmission agreement. We know that the EU places importance on this issue, but if these two topics don't go together, we don't have to implement the [readmission] agreement,” Bozkır stated.

Bozkır also said that 2015 started with an “EU move” and provided information about trips to EU countries. He said he would visit Spain in January.

The path to joining the EU has been a difficult one for Turkey, as negotiation talks have been blocked on eight of the 35 negotiating chapters since 2006 due to Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus, an EU member. Turkey, which started accession talks in 2005, has only been able to open 14 chapters and close only one out of 35 chapters so far.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)