"Balkan EU Membership Should Come Before Turkey, Says Austrian Minister
Balk..banks'Croatia and other Balkan countries have more of a 'right' to be in the EU than Turkey, the Austrian finance minister has said in an interview with the Financial Times. Karl-Heinz Grasser, whose country will chair the EU in the first half of next year, has suggested that full membership of the bloc is not a realistic proposal for Turkey.
All 25 member states will have to hammer out a 'negotiations framework' for dealing with the country before the talks can start on 3 October.
The European Commission has suggested the negotiations should be carried out as an 'open-ended process', with the possibility of Turkey's full EU membership remaining on the table."
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