"EU: Turkey need not ratify deal
While Turkey must sign an agreement extending its European Union customs agreement to include Cyprus and other new EU members before starting accession talks with the Union, it faces no deadline for ratifying the deal, an official in Brussels said yesterday.
Nicosia expressed satisfaction yesterday with the text of the agreement Ankara is to sign, but Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos insisted that Turkey must also be forced to ratify the deal �within a specific time framework.�
The European Commission said it had received a letter from Ankara confirming the Turkish government was ready to sign the customs union extension. But Commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said signature, not ratification, was the precondition for starting the accession talks on October 3. The agreement must be ratified by Turkey's Parliament."
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