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EU to re-start talks with Turkey EU resumes Turkey accession talks
(about 10 hours later)
By Alix Kroeger BBC News, Brussels The European Union will partially re-start accession talks with Turkey on Thursday, the first such talks since negotiations were largely frozen last year. The EU has opened a new stage of membership talks with Turkey, three months after imposing a partial freeze.
Turkey's accession talks stalled over Cyprus last year The two sides started talks in a second of 35 policy areas, which Turkey has to complete - showing that it meets EU standards - before it can join the EU.
EU ambassadors agreed the move on Wednesday. Last December the EU froze talks in eight areas, calling on Turkey to open its ports to Cypriot ships.
Last December, the EU suspended negotiations on eight out of 35 "chapters" or policy areas. Turkey said on Thursday that it would announce plans next month to carry out all the necessary reforms anyway.
For the first time in months, Turkey's bid to join the EU has taken a step forward, albeit a small one. "We will be announcing a programme by which we will be continuing our reforms and this programme will cover all the 35 chapters, even those chapters which will not be opened because of issues... relating to Cyprus," said Turkey's EU negotiator, Ali Babacan.
Negotiators from the two sides will hold talks in Brussels on enterprise and industry, one of more than 20 policy areas still open for discussion. 'Intransigence'
Only one chapter out of 35 was fully completed before the EU decided to freeze talks on eight other areas, in effect putting Turkey's application on hold. The EU's December decision to slow down membership talks also stipulated that no chapters of the talks would be completed until Turkey allowed Cypriot ships into its ports, and Cypriot aircraft into its airports.
Behind the scenes We will not be able to make progress on the ports and airports issue unless the isolation comes to an end Ali Babacan But Mr Babacan said there would be no progress on this issue until the European Union honoured a 2004 decision to end the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community.
Public opinion in the EU was already cooling on the prospect of Turkish membership and the suspension soured the mood in Turkey as well. The European Commission drafted a regulation in 2004 that would kick-start direct trade between the Turkish Cypriots and the EU, but the Cypriot government has reportedly blocked its adoption.
The sticking point was Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from the Greek part of Cyprus, which is already a member of the EU. Foreign ministers agreed in January that "work aiming at the adoption of special conditions for trade" with the Turkish Cypriots "must resume without delay".
For its part, Turkey was insisting that the EU must end the economic isolation of Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus. The island has been divided since the war between the two sides in 1974. However, an EU official quoted by the AFP news agency said the Republic of Cyprus was "totally intransigent on direct trade" and that no progress was likely until after presidential elections there in 2008.
Despite the freeze agreed by EU foreign ministers last year, work on the open chapters has been continuing behind the scenes. But these are the first formal negotiations. 'Disillusionment'
An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC the EU hoped to start talks on three more chapters by the end of June. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the opening of the new chapter of Turkey's accession talks.
He added that the German EU presidency was aiming to open several chapters before the end of June.
Mr Babacan said the EU's decision to partially suspend Turkey's membership talks had triggered some disillusionment in Turkey, and that it was crucial to show Turkish citizens that the accession process was moving forward.
He said the reform programme that Turkey was about to announce would bring the country into alignment with EU requirements in all 35 policy areas, by 2013.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey seized the northern third of the island.
It was acting in response to a Greek-inspired coup in Nicosia, aimed at uniting the island with Greece.