Turkey interested only in full accession

Turkey would not accept any EU offer other than full accession, Turkey's chief negotiator Ali Babacan told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Mr Babacan rejected suggestions of a "privileged partnership" as an alternative to membership and said that his government was not interested in that. He reiterated that full EU membership is the goal to which both the EU and Turkey have committed themselves. "No other relationship is foreseeable for Turkey."

Mr Babacan told MEPs that Turkey already has several arrangements with the EU, such as the customs union, and that it was difficult to see what could be added to that in a special relationship. Turkey could live with the "rigorous" negotiation framework as proposed by the European Commission two weeks ago but "would take issue if there were new hurdles", Mr Babacan said.

"The negotiations will be difficult, but we will be patient, tolerant, focused and we will work hard, knowing that we will have to win the hearts and minds of those who are still sceptical."

Answering concerns raised by a number of MEPs about an apparent slow-down in the reforms, Mr Babacan replied that the "critical mass" of the reforms had been achieved prior to the Council's decision in December last year to open negotiations.

Implementation of the reforms takes some time, he added, and therefore the Turkish government prefers to evaluate progress on the basis of whether there is improvement compared to the previous year.

The UK Presidency of the EU has declared there should be no difficulties in opening negotiations with Turkey in October but many countries, such as France, are calling for a halt to EU enlargement.