NEGOTIATIONS ON FOOD SAFETY CHAPTER WITH EU

"Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary" chapter has been opened to accession negotiations during the Intergovernmental Conference at the European Council, held with the attendance of Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator, Egemen Bagis; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu; and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Mehdi Eker.

Together with the food safety chapter, Turkey has opened 13 chapters to the accession negotiations which started in 2005 with the screening process.

In the ninth meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference with Turkey organized at the ministerial level, the EU delegation was headed by Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Stefan Fule, European Commissioner for Enlargement.

Spain declared its desire to open negotiations with Turkey on four chapters, when it took over the rotating presidency of the Union six months ago. However, when it could not overcome the political obstacles of some countries, Spain exerted great efforts to open at least one chapter. Spain even broke a record by reducing the chapter opening process to ten days instead of months after Turkey fulfilled the required criteria on food safety.

Speaking at the joint press conference Bagis said: "If there are countries believing that the accession of Turkey will cost a lot to the EU, I think that it's high time for them to consider the cost of excluding Turkey outside the EU."

Bagis stated that there were chapters to be opened during the presidency of Belgium and he asked for the education and culture, and energy chapters to be opened during the presidency of Belgium, as Spain exerted efforts and made a great deal of progress for the opening of these chapters.

Emphasizing that he was not worried any more for the suspension of accession negotiations because of the Cyprus issue, Bagis said:

"This is because Cyprus issue also existed when England which is one of the guarantor states and which has soldiers and a military base in Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Moreover, during the accession of Greece which is another guarantor state, Cyprus issue was still present. Even during the accession of Greek Republic of Southern Cyprus itself, there was Cyprus issue. This issue had not been an obstacle for the membership of those countries, so nobody can have a clear conscience about the acceptance of Cyprus issue as an obstacle before Turkey's membership."

Source: AA