European Commission recommends EU start entry talks with Turkey: Fischler

BRUSSELS, Oct 6 (AFP) - The European Commission on Wednesday recommended the EU start membership talks with Turkey, but set a series of tough conditions warning there was no guarantee of a successful outcome, Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said.
"There is clearly the possibility that Turkey can become a member, but the negotiations, and this is very important, are open-ended," he said after a commission meeting on Turkey's EU candidacy.
EU leaders will use the commission's recommendations to decide at a December summit whether to finally start membership talks with Turkey.
Turkey, an official candidate since 1999, has been waiting to join the European club for four decades but its efforts have stumbled over its civil rights record.
Many Europeans are alarmed at the prospect of the EU taking in a poor and mostly Muslim state that has 90 percent of its territory in Asia and which borders Iraq, Iran and Syria.