European Union
5 Oct 2005
NEGOTIATING FRAMEWORK
Principles governing the negotiations
1. The negotiations will be based on Turkey’s own merits and the pace will
depend on Turkey’s progress in meeting the requirements for membership. The
Presidency or the Commission as appropriate will keep the Council fully
informed so that the Council can keep the situation under regular review.
The Union side, for its part, will decide in due course whether the
conditions for the conclusion of negotiations have been met; this will be
done on the basis of a report from the Commission confirming the fulfilment
by Turkey of the requirements listed in point 6.
2. As agreed at the European Council in December 2004, these negotiations
are based on Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union. The shared
objective of the negotiations is accession. These negotiations are an
open-ended process, the outcome of which cannot be guaranteed beforehand.
While having full regard to all Copenhagen criteria, including the
absorption capacity of the Union, if Turkey is not in a position to assume
in full all the obligations of membership it must be ensured that Turkey is
fully anchored in the European structures through the strongest possible
bond.
3. Enlargement should strengthen the process of continuous creation and
integration in which the Union and its Member States are engaged. Every
effort should be made to protect the cohesion and effectiveness of the
Union. In accordance with the conclusions of the Copenhagen European Council
in 1993, the Union’s capacity to absorb Turkey, while maintaining the
momentum of European integration is an important consideration in the
general interest of both the Union and Turkey. The Commission shall monitor
this capacity during the negotiations, encompassing the whole range of
issues set out in its October 2004 paper on issues arising from Turkey’s
membership perspective, in order to inform an assessment by the Council as
to whether this condition of membership has been met.
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4. Negotiations are opened on the basis that Turkey sufficiently meets the
political criteria set by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993, for the
most part later enshrined in Article 6(1) of the Treaty on European Union
and proclaimed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Union expects
Turkey to sustain the process of reform and to work towards further
improvement in the respect of the principles of liberty, democracy, the rule
of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including
relevant European case law; to consolidate and broaden legislation and
implementation measures specifically in relation to the zero tolerance
policy in the fight against torture and ill-treatment and the implementation
of provisions relating to freedom of expression, freedom of religion,
women’s rights, ILO standards including trade union rights, and minority
rights. The Union and Turkey will continue their intensive political
dialogue. To ensure the irreversibility of progress in these areas and its
full and effective implementation, notably with regard to fundamental
freedoms and to full respect of human rights, progress will continue to be
closely monitored by the Commission, which is invited to continue to report
regularly on it to the Council, addressing all points of concern identified
in the Commission’s 2004 report and recommendation as well as its annual
regular report.
5. In the case of a serious and persistent breach in Turkey of the
principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms and the rule of law on which the Union is founded, the Commission
will, on its own initiative or on the request of one third of the Member
States, recommend the suspension of negotiations and propose the conditions
for eventual resumption. The Council will decide by qualified majority on
such a recommendation, after having heard Turkey, whether to suspend the
negotiations and on the conditions for their resumption. The Member States
will act in the Intergovernmental Conference in accordance with the Council
decision, without prejudice to the general requirement for unanimity in the
Intergovernmental Conference. The European Parliament will be informed.
6. The advancement of the negotiations will be guided by Turkey’s progress
in preparing for accession, within a framework of economic and social
convergence and with reference to the Commission’s reports in paragraph 2.
This progress will be measured in particular against the following
requirements:
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? the Copenhagen criteria, which set down the following requirements for
membership:
* the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law,
human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
* the existence of a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope
with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union;
* the ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adherence
to the aims of political, economic and monetary union and the administrative
capacity to effectively apply and implement the acquis;
? Turkey’s unequivocal commitment to good neighbourly relations and its
undertaking to resolve any outstanding border disputes in conformity with
the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the
United Nations Charter, including if necessary jurisdiction of the
International Court of Justice;
? Turkey’s continued support for efforts to achieve a comprehensive
settlement of the Cyprus problem within the UN framework and in line with
the principles on which the Union is founded, including steps to contribute
to a favourable climate for a comprehensive settlement, and progress in the
normalisation of bilateral relations between Turkey and all EU Member
States, including the Republic of Cyprus.
? the fulfilment of Turkey’s obligations under the Association Agreement and
its Additional Protocol extending the Association Agreement to all new EU
Member States, in particular those pertaining to the EU-Turkey customs
union, as well as the implementation of the Accession Partnership, as
regularly revised.
7. In the period up to accession, Turkey will be required to progressively
align its policies towards third countries and its positions within
international organisations (including in relation to the membership by all
EU Member States of those organisations and arrangements) with the policies
and positions adopted by the Union and its Member States.
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8. Parallel to accession negotiations, the Union will engage with Turkey in
an intensive political and civil society dialogue. The aim of the inclusive
civil society dialogue will be to enhance mutual understanding by bringing
people together in particular with a view to ensuring the support of
European citizens for the accession process.
9. Turkey must accept the results of any other accession negotiations as
they stand at the moment of its accession.
Substance of the negotiations
10. Accession implies the acceptance of the rights and obligations attached
to the Union system and its institutional framework, known as the acquis of
the Union. Turkey will have to apply this as it stands at the time of
accession. Furthermore, in addition to legislative alignment, accession
implies timely and effective implementation of the acquis. The acquis is
constantly evolving and includes:
– the content, principles and political objectives of the Treaties on which
the Union is founded;
– legislation and decisions adopted pursuant to the Treaties, and the case
law of the Court of Justice;
– other acts, legally binding or not, adopted within the Union framework,
such as interinstitutional agreements, resolutions, statements,
recommendations, guidelines;
– joint actions, common positions, declarations, conclusions and other acts
within the framework of the common foreign and security policy;
– joint actions, joint positions, conventions signed, resolutions,
statements and other acts agreed within the framework of justice and home
affairs;
– international agreements concluded by the Communities, the Communities
jointly with their Member States, the Union, and those concluded by the
Member States among themselves with regard to Union activities.
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Turkey will need to produce translations of the acquis into Turkish in good
time before accession, and will need to train a sufficient number of
translators and interpreters required for the proper functioning of the EU
institutions upon its accession.
11. The resulting rights and obligations, all of which Turkey will have to
honour as a Member State, imply the termination of all existing bilateral
agreements between Turkey and the Communities, and of all other
international agreements concluded by Turkey which are incompatible with the
obligations of membership. Any provisions of the Association Agreement which
depart from the acquis cannot be considered as precedents in the accession
negotiations.
12. Turkey’s acceptance of the rights and obligations arising from the
acquis may necessitate specific adaptations to the acquis and may,
exceptionally, give rise to transitional measures which must be defined
during the accession negotiations.
Where necessary, specific adaptations to the acquis will be agreed on the
basis of the principles, criteria and parameters inherent in that acquis as
applied by the Member States when adopting that acquis, and taking into
consideration the specificities of Turkey.
The Union may agree to requests from Turkey for transitional measures
provided they are limited in time and scope, and accompanied by a plan with
clearly defined stages for application of the acquis. For areas linked to
the extension of the internal market, regulatory measures should be
implemented quickly and transition periods should be short and few; where
considerable adaptations are necessary requiring substantial effort
including large financial outlays, appropriate transitional arrangements can
be envisaged as part of an on-going, detailed and budgeted plan for
alignment. In any case, transitional arrangements must not involve
amendments to the rules or policies of the Union, disrupt their proper
functioning, or lead to significant distortions of competition. In this
connection, account must be taken of the interests of the Union and of
Turkey.
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Long transitional periods, derogations, specific arrangements or permanent
safeguard clauses, i.e. clauses which are permanently available as a basis
for safeguard measures, may be considered. The Commission will include
these, as appropriate, in its proposals in areas such as freedom of movement
of persons, structural policies or agriculture. Furthermore, the
decision-taking process regarding the eventual establishment of freedom of
movement of persons should allow for a maximum role of individual Member
States. Transitional arrangements or safeguards should be reviewed regarding
their impact on competition or the functioning of the internal market.
Detailed technical adaptations to the acquis will not need to be fixed
during the accession negotiations. They will be prepared in cooperation with
Turkey and adopted by the Union institutions in good time with a view to
their entry into force on the date of accession.
13. The financial aspects of the accession of Turkey must be allowed for in
the applicable Financial Framework. Hence, as Turkey’s accession could have
substantial financial consequences, the negotiations can only be concluded
after the establishment of the Financial Framework for the period from 2014
together with possible consequential financial reforms. Any arrangements
should ensure that the financial burdens are fairly shared between all
Member States.
14. Turkey will participate in economic and monetary union from accession as
a Member State with a derogation and shall adopt the euro as its national
currency following a Council decision to this effect on the basis of an
evaluation of its fulfilment of the necessary conditions. The remaining
acquis in this area fully applies from accession.
15. With regard to the area of freedom, justice and security, membership of
the European Union implies that Turkey accepts in full on accession the
entire acquis in this area, including the Schengen acquis. However, part of
this acquis will only apply in Turkey following a Council decision to lift
controls on persons at internal borders taken on the basis of the applicable
Schengen evaluation of Turkey’s readiness.
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16. The EU points out the importance of a high level of environmental
protection, including all aspects of nuclear safety.
17. In all areas of the acquis, Turkey must bring its institutions,
management capacity and administrative and judicial systems up to Union
standards, both at national and regional level, with a view to implementing
the acquis effectively or, as the case may be, being able to implement it
effectively in good time before accession. At the general level, this
requires a well-functioning and stable public administration built on an
efficient and impartial civil service, and an independent and efficient
judicial system.
Negotiating procedures
18. The substance of negotiations will be conducted in an Intergovernmental
Conference with the participation of all Member States on the one hand and
the candidate State on the other.
19. The Commission will undertake a formal process of examination of the
acquis, called screening, in order to explain it to the Turkish authorities,
to assess the state of preparation of Turkey for opening negotiations in
specific areas and to obtain preliminary indications of the issues that will
most likely come up in the negotiations.
20. For the purposes of screening and the subsequent negotiations, the
acquis will be broken down into a number of chapters, each covering a
specific policy area. A list of these chapters is provided in the Annex. Any
view expressed by either Turkey or the EU on a specific chapter of the
negotiations will in no way prejudge the position which may be taken on
other chapters. Also, agreements reached in the course of negotiations on
specific chapters, even partial ones, may not be considered as final until
an overall agreement has been reached for all chapters.
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21. Building on the Commission’s Regular Reports on Turkey’s progress
towards accession and in particular on information obtained by the
Commission during screening, the Council, acting by unanimity on a proposal
by the Commission, will lay down benchmarks for the provisional closure and,
where appropriate, for the opening of each chapter. The Union will
communicate such benchmarks to Turkey. Depending on the chapter, precise
benchmarks will refer in particular to the existence of a functioning market
economy, to legislative alignment with the acquis and to a satisfactory
track record in implementation of key elements of the acquis demonstrating
the existence of an adequate administrative and judicial capacity. Where
relevant, benchmarks will also include the fulfilment of commitments under
the Association Agreement, in particular those pertaining to the EU-Turkey
customs union and those that mirror requirements under the acquis. Where
negotiations cover a considerable period of time, or where a chapter is
revisited at a later date to incorporate new elements such as new acquis,
the existing benchmarks may be updated.
22. Turkey will be requested to indicate its position in relation to the
acquis and to report on its progress in meeting the benchmarks. Turkey’s
correct transposition and implementation of the acquis, including effective
and efficient application through appropriate administrative and judicial
structures, will determine the pace of negotiations.
23. To this end, the Commission will closely monitor Turkey’s progress in
all areas, making use of all available instruments, including on-site expert
reviews by or on behalf of the Commission. The Commission will inform the
Council of Turkey’s progress in any given area when presenting draft EU
Common Positions. The Council will take this assessment into account when
deciding on further steps relating to the negotiations on that chapter. In
addition to the information the EU may require for the negotiations on each
chapter and which is to be provided by Turkey to the Conference, Turkey will
be required to continue to provide regularly detailed, written information
on progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis, even
after provisional closure of a chapter. In the case of provisionally closed
chapters, the Commission may recommend the re-opening of negotiations, in
particular where Turkey has failed to meet important benchmarks or to
implement its commitments.