"Tough limits set as Europe finally agrees to talk Turkey
By Anthony Browne, Greg Hurst and Rory Watson in Brussels
No early gifts: Turkey's conditions of EU entry are the toughest laid down for any applicant (MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/GETTY)
THE European Union has decided to embark on its most controversial enlargement by giving Turkey the green light to start entry talks.
The opponents and supporters of Turkey�s EU membership, equally passionate, came to an agreement only by offering Ankara far stricter entry conditions than any other prospective member has ever had.
The deal, which was almost derailed at the eleventh hour by dramatic diplomatic rows in Brussels, opens the way for a poor, largely agrarian, Islamic country almost entirely in Asia to become the largest member of the Union, with a greater voting power on new European Union policies than any current member state. The talks are scheduled to start on October 3, 2005, but are expected to last ten years"
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