The EU accession process has also underpinned a shift in Turkish policy on Iraq.

Ukraine needs the discipline of the accession process and thus the promise of EU membership if reforms are to be implemented effectively.

That seduction should begin this year, with an agenda that sets the process and timeframe for accession, to be followed by an EU Turkey Treaty that confirms the country s accession by 2020.

Today s Turkey has also changed dramatically since 1999, both politically and economically, and this has much to do with the EU accession process.

But these bodies must not be seen as substitutes for the far more comprehensive accession process, which only the EU itself can initiate.

For Poles, the dream was realized on May 1 with EU accession.

At the end of 2004, the EU decided to initiate accession talks.

The EU accession agenda continued to drive the country's economic reform programme.

Some warned even before EU accession that their nations could lose their identity.

Of course, there is vast domestic resistance to Turkey s accession to the EU.

Recent accession to the EU gives further impetus and direction to structural reform.

If the process leading to EU accession is put back on track, it will greatly aid the effort to ensure that Turkey becomes an open society.

The competition and prospect of belonging to a group of frontrunners would be an added incentive for Balkan leaders to engage with the EU accession process.

The process of ratification and accession must be accelerated.

The EU must learn from this experience to develop an accession strategy for the Western Balkans, whose development has been delayed by a complex post conflict transition process.

That government has undertaken various important democratic reforms and initiated accession negotiations with the EU.

EU accession remains a dominant policy goal for a number of countries in the subregion.

Today s Turkey has also changed dramatically since 1999, both politically and economically, and this has much to do with the EU accession process. Indeed, without the attraction of the EU its soft power such changes would not have occurred.

In other words, this strategy is compatible with EU accession only if the EU strengthens its own capacity for concerted action on foreign policy.

But the new regulation also seriously penalizes subsidiary financing in new EU member and accession countries.

Turkey would then have to conduct dual negotiations over Cyprus and over its own EU accession.

It may also be constructive to take advantage of transitional provisions linked to Turkey s EU accession.

In the question of Turkish accession to the EU, the journey matters more than the destination.

Our accession to the EU further accelerated growth, as reflected in the country's key macroeconomic indicators.

Assistance to countries in the process of accession to the WTO

In Central Europe and the Baltics, the promise of EU accession offered a path through the transition.

The Group supported countries in the process of accession to the WTO.

The EU and the US should underscore the need for political change and for candidates who support EU accession as indispensable to Bosnia s economic and political progress.

Moreover, these populists attack the EU as an elite imposed project, while pro European coalitions have become exhausted, disintegrating in the aftermath of EU accession in 2004.

The eastern neighbors are not like the central European states that negotiated EU accession in the 1990 s.

In order to prepare for EU accession, Turkey has undertaken vast and serious legal, political, and economic reforms.

In March 2001, the Swiss people refused in a popular vote to start accession negotiations with the EU.

The EU welcomes the accession to the NPT in 2002 and 2003 respectively of Cuba and Timor Leste.

Accession to the European Union (EU) has been a driving force in improving water governance in the region.

Yet nine least developed countries37 remain in different stages of the accession process.

Domestic support for EU accession was 70 at the start of the negotiations, but is now closer to 40 .

In fact, enlargement fatigue has been the dominant feature of EU relations with the western Balkan states and explains why the accession process has been flat lining along a path of frozen negotiations and mutual mistrust toward an increasingly uncertain destination. This remains the case even after Croatia s accession.

Should the EU consider the accession criteria as having been fulfilled, it must decide to open negotiations in early 2005.

As the EU celebrates the accession of Croatia which will undoubtedly provide a short term boost to the reform process throughout the western Balkans it faces a profound choice in its engagement with the region.

If the accession process resumes and its credibility is restored this would allow Turkey to continue acting as an economic, cultural, political, and social hub in its neighborhood, benefiting the EU, the neighborhood, and itself.

(iv) 2002 2003 Director of the EU Policy and Legal Advice Centre in Belgrade (tasked by the European Commission with assisting Serbia and Montenegro with the EU accession strategy, see www.plac.yu.org).

In this respect, Syria and Iran appreciate Turkey s EU membership process.

Turkey thus argues that the charge of genocide is designed to besmirch Turkey s honor and impede its progress towards EU accession.

It would be a wise step for Turkey s European friends to facilitate the accession process.

The final result of the accession process is therefore an open question for both sides.