Publication

On 3 October the European Union intends to launch its accession negotiations with Turkey. However, the decision to initiate talks may end up not being decided until an extraordinary meeting of the European Council on 26 September, or even until the morning of 3 October itself. For at their informal meeting in Newport on 1 and 2 September 2005, EU foreign ministers failed to reach agreement on the last few unresolved issues, and the political decision-makers' interests are too far apart for them to reach anything but a superficial, ostensible understanding.