Today, accession conferences with the candidate countries Turkey and Croatia are taking place in Brussels.
Accession conferences are held every time one of the 35 negotiation chapters is opened. For Turkey, the second chapter is being opened today, for Croatia the sixth.
Federal Foreign Minister Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the following statement in Berlin: "I welcome the progress made in the accession talks with Croatia and Turkey.
Croatia is making good progress on its path to Europe.
The accession process with Turkey has been put back on track. The German Presidency of the Council aims to open some chapters in the negotiations with Turkey in the first half of the year. The yardstick for our action here are the decisions taken by the EU Foreign Ministers in December 2006."
