"Turkey bristles at tough EU draft
Tue Dec 7, 2004 04:55 PM GMT
By Gareth Jones and Paul Taylor
ANKARA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey has bristled at a toughening of conditions for its bid to open European Union membership talks, including an explicit mention of torture, but Cyprus says the terms are not tough enough.
The latest draft of the final statement for next week's EU summit, due to decide on starting accession negotiations with Turkey, showed Ankara will have to prove it is implementing EU law rather than just enacting it to progress towards membership.
The text circulated by the Dutch EU presidency on Tuesday added a reference to the need for Turkey to settle disputes that could affect its accession bid via the International Court of Justice."
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