BRUSSELS - Turkey reproached the European Union (EU) officials during the meetings carried out under Brussels Summit.
Turkey reproached the EU for shedding green light to start full membership negotiations with Croatia in the beginning of 2005 in spite of its deficiencies in human rights and democracy.
Diplomatic sources said that Turkey did not object Croatia's starting full membership negotiations, however it expressed opinion that the EU showed privilege to Croatia while it was insistent that membership negotiations could not start with Turkey if it did not meet Copenhagen criteria.
The EU Final Statement said that membership negotiations with Croatia, which applied for full membership last year, would start in the beginning of the next year with intergovernmental bilateral contacts and the process of these negotiations would be related with the efforts and progress of Croatia.
Heads of state and government did not set an accession date to Croatia but they gave messages about the possibility of accession together with Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.
(GC-AY) 19.06.2004