On October 4, 2005, the EU officially opened accession negotiations with Turkey after member states overcame a deadlock on whether to offer Turkey full membership. The Austrian government withdrew its opposition to full membership and the Turkish government agreed to the conditions included in the EU's negotiating framework. The negotiations are expected to take more than 10 years, due to the nature of pre-accession reforms that need to be made in Turkey. The negotiations are the culmination of a 40-year effort to achieve full integration with the European community.

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Learn more about Turkish accession from the Turkish Secretariat General for EU Affairs, and more about Turkish pre-accession reforms from the JURIST news archive.

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