ANKARA, Dec 24 (AFP) - EU membership candidate Turkey is unhappy with the amount of financial support its receives from the European Union and hopes the funds will gradually increase after 2006, a senior official said Friday.
"The financial aid allocated for Turkey is insufficient when compared to the funds the other candidates receive," the official who is closely involved in EU-Turkey affairs said on the condition of anonymity.
The Union has allocated 1.7 billion euros for Turkey in the period between 2000 and 2006, while tiny Bulgaria, for instance, with a population barely a ninth of Turkey's, has been allocated 2.8 billion euros for the same period.
The funds are intended to help the candidate countries adapt to the Union's norms inscribed in tens of thousand of pages of legislation as they prepare for membership.
Turkey has been allocated 250 million euros for 2004, 300 million euros for 2005 and 500 million euros for 2006.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is yet to determine how much money will go to Turkey between 2007 and 2014.
"We expect the funds to gradually increase to maybe 700 million euros in 2007 and reach one billion euros (per year) in the following years," the official said.
Turkey received a green light for membership talks on October 3, 2005 at a historic EU summit in Brussels last week.
The accession process of the vast Muslim country, which has a population of about 70 million people and a relatively poor economy, is expected to be a major political and financial challenge for the European bloc.
12/24/2004 13:35 GMT - AFP