"EU leaders to offer Turkey deal on membership talks
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
16 December 2004
The European Parliament yesterday called for EU membership talks with Turkey as soon as possible, paving the way for heads of government to make an historic offer to Ankara at a meeting tonight.
More than 40 years after Turkey sought membership of the European club, EU leaders are expected to agree on the terms under which membership negotiations, likely to last at least a decade, can begin next year. Yesterday MEPs, meeting in Strasbourg, voted 407 to 262, with 29 abstentions, to pass the resolution and rejected amendments which offered Turkey an intermediate status of 'special partnership' rather than full membership. Though the vote, unusually a secret one, has no legal force, it makes it harder for opponents of Turkish accession to say they have popular support across the EU."
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