THE EU COUNCIL DECISION ON CHAPTER 22

The General Affairs Council (GAC) agreed to open Chapter 22 Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments at its session held on 25 June 2013.

In his assessment regarding the opening of the chapter, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said: “I welcome the opening of Chapter 22, which will be quite meaningful in the context of the resolution process which is currently underway in Turkey. The opening of this chapter was not an extraordinary process, but an ordinary one. However, as underlined by Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Stefan Füle, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, the opening of the politically significant Chapters 23 and 24 is, in the context of the sensitive nature of the process, also important from this point onwards. Turkey’s EU bid is a strategic objective which transcends all political parties.”

The Inter-Governmental Conference with Turkey will take place after the presentation of the Commission’s annual progress report and following a discussion of the GAC which will confirm the common position of the Council for the opening of Chapter 22 and determine the date for the accession conference.

GAC Decision can be reached through the web page http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/genaff/137597.pdf