Türkiye has expressed dissatisfaction with a revised draft of conclusions set to be adopted at the European Union summit scheduled for 16-17 December in Brussels, a senior Turkish official confirmed Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met with Dutch European Affairs Minister Atzo Nikolai in Ankara to discuss the updated text. The Netherlands currently holds the rotating EU presidency. A government official said Türkiye's earlier objections had been addressed only minimally in the new version.
The revised draft differs from the first in two notable ways: it stresses that the EU must confirm its capacity to absorb Türkiye before any admission decision is made, and it explicitly names torture as a concern requiring close monitoring.
EU leaders are broadly expected to approve opening accession negotiations with Ankara, but with strict conditions attached, including a warning that the process could take at least a decade and carries no guarantee of full membership.
The official indicated that talks over the final wording would continue right up to the Brussels summit, describing the situation as an ongoing diplomatic process with no definitive conclusions yet to be drawn.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in December 2004, in its own words.